King Zwelithini and Jacob Zuma stopped Zulu blood flowing

As President Cyril Ramaphosa sang the praises of Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini at his funeral yesterday, it was clear that the bitter enmities of the ’80s and ’90s within the people of KwaZulu-Natal have largely been put aside.

Whether or not the king was the peacemaker – as Ramaphosa stated – is something only history will judge.

But, Ramaphosa did correctly and accurately mention the role played by Jacob Zuma in helping to bring to an end the awful carnage which wracked both KZN and Gauteng in the period before the 1994 elections.

The ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party were pitted against each other in a bloody civil war which cost, by some estimates, as many as 20 000 lives … by far the biggest death toll in the entire modern South African liberation struggle.

Zuma was the man who managed to persuade the IFP, its leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and also King Goodwill, that Zulus (some backed by apartheid agencies) should be not killing other Zulus.

The peace that eventuated stopped the hills of KZN from running red with blood.

Though Zuma may later have allegedly gone astray to help steal the country blind, it is important that this part of his legacy should be acknowledged.

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