Has Buthelezi's time come?

By Angela Quintal

He was described as "the last heavyweight of the Class of 94", whose party's performance in the April elections would determine whether "he had gone one round too many".

It was February, and former DA leader Tony Leon was referring to IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the man who had "survived five decades of political tumult and personal anguish" and whose face was on the ballot again.

Given the IFP's dismal performance at the polls, including its KwaZulu-Natal heartland, there are those who believe the 80-year-old Buthelezi has indeed gone one round too many.

"Have you?" I ask in an interview at the home of one of his most trusted advisers.

"I regard myself (as) no more than just a caretaker president. Even now I don't regard myself as a president I was in 2004," Buthelezi replies.

It is a different take on a stock response.

In 2004 he told the IFP's national conference in Ulundi that he wanted to retire, but - as he often reminds his detractors - he was "compelled" by the party faithful to stay on.

It was an action he repeated again a year later with the same result, and as far as Buthelezi is concerned this is proof that he is not clinging to power.

Analysts such as Aubrey Matshiqi believe, however, that the IFP lost an opportunity for internal reform by re-electing Buthelezi in 2004.

Matshiqi correctly observes that the lack of succession planning in the party may result in a turbulent transition.

With an elective conference scheduled for next month, Buthelezi insists that party members should "elect whoever they want to elect".

On whether he should refuse nomination this time, he kicks for touch. "I suppose a thing like that one says to the party. One does not say that to the media."

Buthelezi acknowledges, however, that he is concerned about his legacy and whether his party will "go to pieces".

His closest aides point out that Buthelezi, not the IFP, is the "brand", and as far as they are concerned there is no potential successor who comes close to his stature.

But Buthelezi is under pressure, not only from some members of the IFP Youth Brigade and those waiting in the wings hoping to succeed him, but also from his own family. "They are very angry and don't see why I should continue," he says.

Buthelezi acknowledges that he is "between a rock and a hard place", but that "does not mean that I will cling (to power) at all costs".

The two names cited as possible successors are IFP secretary-general Musa Zondi and party chairwoman Zanele kaMagwaza Msibi.

But personal ambition can be an obstacle to higher office, as former IFP national chairman Ziba Jiyane learnt. KaMagwaza Msibi, too, is feeling the heat.

It is clear that the leadership battles that have cursed other parties have also affected the IFP, and it is one of the factors Buthelezi is considering as he makes his decision.

There also appears to be no "third way" candidate, and if Buthelezi has a preference he's not telling.

Asked whether he would consider a merger with another party to start something new, Buthelezi replies: "I wouldn't mind, but the question is with whom."

At this stage he is "too preoccupied with things going on in my own party"; initiatives such as the attempt by United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa to forge closer opposition co-operation have yet to receive his full attention.

Buthelezi insists, as he did in his online letter last week in which he paraphrased Mark Twain, that "reports of my (political) death are greatly exaggerated".

He also denies that his party is "terminal" or that a leadership change is necessarily the best medicine.

"Let's take the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress). How many leaders have been appointed? It does not improve the fortunes of the party," he says of the former liberation party whose support has declined under four successive leaders since 1994.

While he insists that there are no final victories or defeats in politics, Buthelezi says he recognises the "candid truth that we are no longer a party that, under present conditions, can hope to become the next government".

The IFP's presence in Parliament has been depleted and it has lost its status as the third largest party to Cope. However, Buthelezi says he remains inspired by the example of his late friend, veteran liberal politician Helen Suzman. "She taught us that paucity of numbers is never a defence for mediocrity… One Helen is worth 10 mediocre MPs."

Asked whether the suspended IFP Youth Brigade members in KwaZulu-Natal have a point when they say the party's leaders and public representatives should resign, Buthelezi shoots back: "What did they do themselves?"

He is not amused by their ill-discipline, which he believes should be the preserve of the ANC Youth League. "I have said they are copycats. This culture is completely foreign to the IFP."

Buthelezi wants to look forward, not backwards. In the State of the Nation debate on Thursday, he spoke of a new-found sense of freedom.

"I am now free from all constraints and empowered by a freedom of thought and speech I never enjoyed before," he says. "I now enjoy the freedom to speak truth to power."

But it is unlikely that Buthelezi will ever enjoy the freedom not to fight "another round too many".

• This article was originally published on page 7 of The Sunday Independent on June 07, 2009