Geingob pays tribute to Buthelezi

President Hage Geingob has paid tribute to South Africa’s oldest and controversial member of parliament Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who died on Saturday.

Buthelezi, who died at 95, was South Africa’s former home affairs minister and president of Inkatha Freedom Party.

“Even though we didn’t always subscribe to the same political beliefs as Dr Buthelezi, I personally had good relations with him,” a statement issued by the presidency reads.

Geingob reminisced about their first encounter in 1993 in Windhoek, saying it was at the height of the Codesa Talks and the political transition in South Africa.

The forum for negotiating a peaceful transition to democracy was called the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa).

“That occasion allowed us to share lessons about our own transition to independence in 1990 and journey towards nation-building and peace,” the statement reads.

Buthelezi has been labelled as one of South Africa’s most controversial and divisive figures in the country’s political landscape.

South African media report that the late politician opted to participate in the apartheid state’s abhorred homeland system and served as the chief minister of the KwaZulu Bantustan from 1976 to 1994.

This was a year after he formed the Inkatha Freedom Party as a cultural movement.

“Butherezi played a prominent role in South African politics for almost a century.

“Further, at the time of his death, Buthelezi left his mark on South Africa’s history,” Geingob says.

South Africa’s IOL reported that the provinces of KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng were engulfed in an orgy of violence spearheaded by Inkatha, the KwaZulu Natal bantustan and the apartheid state against the African National Congress aligned Mass Democratic Movement.

“More than 20 000 lives were lost and thousands more maimed during this period. Buthelezi also became the poster boy for the apartheid state’s international campaign opposing economic, sporting and cultural sanctions,” IOL reported.

The lives lost, South African media states, are in Buthelezi’s hands.