South Africa
KwaZulu-Natal peace maintained in last minute

afrol News, 9 January - A dangerous power struggle between South Africa's majority party ANC and the ruling party of the KwaZulu-Natal province, the Inkatha Freedom Party, has been avoided, for the moment. A similar struggle over the control of KwaZulu-Natal in the early 1990s brought the province to the brink of civil war. 

The Inkatha party - originally a nationalist movement of the Zulu people founded by the Zulu King - has ruled the province for decades. During the fall of apartheid, however, Inkatha rule was challenged by the numerous ANC followers in the province, leading to political violence that left thousands dead during the early 1990s. Conflict turned to cooperation in 1994 as the Inkatha consolidated its grip on the democratically elected provincial government and its leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, joined the national coalition government in Pretoria. 

Inkatha's parliamentary majority in KwaZulu-Natal however has slowly crumbled in the subsequent elections. An ANC bill that would allow provincial members of parliament to switch parties during a parliamentary term could have threatened the narrow Inkatha majority in KwaZulu-Natal. The ANC believes it has recruited sufficient potential defectors to change the power balance in the provincial legislative. Given the approval of the bill, the ANC could have gained power in KwaZulu-Natal without holding new elections, analysts of both parties held.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Lionel Mtshali, was not letting the ANC take away his power basis by a decision in Pretoria. His provincial cabinet decided to dissolve the legislature today and hold early elections, thus hoping to get rid of the Inkatha defectors and win a fresh majority. The ANC strongly opposed to this. The language of conflict between Inkatha and ANC members however soon raised fears of the return of the violence bypassed ten years ago. 

The move alarmed South African President Thabo Mbeki and Vice President Jacob Zuma. Mr Mbeki, interrupting his holidays, went off to KwaZulu-Natal, promising the disputed floor crossing paragraph would be removed from the bill. The ANC and its leader had recognised the situation was threatening the "peace and stability in KwaZulu-Natal." 

Yesterday, in a last minute move, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Mtshali temporarily halted the process to dissolve the provincial parliament, qualified as a "desperate move" that was both "unnecessary and unreasonable" by the ANC. There however had been wide dissent within the Inkatha party to call off this move, Mr Mtshali stated, and therefore the motion had only been "held in abeyance." 

While Mr Mtshali says he has received a written guarantee from President Mbeki that the disputed bill would not contain a possibility for MPs to switch party, no concrete moves have however been made by the ANC. Inkatha leader Buthelezi - who is also South African Minister of Home Affairs - has already warned that the crisis is not over.

Minister Buthelezi is today quoted as doubting the sincerity of the ANC in this matter. "Unfortunately our constituency has experienced many instances in which undertakings made by ANC leaders at the highest level were then overturned by ANC structures," he told the press today. The Inkatha leader has indicated that he cannot remain in the national coalition government if the peace between ANC and his party is broken in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the populous south-eastern province, the harm is already made, regardless what the national leaders will agree upon. The years of trust-building between the old foes suddenly seem gone by the wind. Inkatha spokesman Musa Zondi told the local press relations with the ANC "here in the province are bad, they are non-existent as far as I am concerned."

ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama however focuses on cooperation. He reiterated his party's "commitment to peace and stability in KwaZulu-Natal," and talked about the necessity to find "an amicable solution to this unnecessary instability." He however puts all the blame for this instability on the "unreasonable" position of the Inkatha party.

Sources: Based on Inkatha, ANC, South African govt. and press  and afrol archives 

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