Let the battle axe be buried for ever

If anyone doubts how far South Africa has come since the early ’90s and where it might have ended up, just speak to anyone who lived through the internecine bloodshed between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and the East Rand during those years.

As many as 20,000 people died as the ANC’s armed “self-defence units” (SDUs) and the IFP’s equivalent “special protection units” (SPUs) fought their bitter struggle for supremacy. It would be easy to say that the then-apartheid regime looked on with satisfaction at the black-on-black violence, which had all the hallmarks of a civil war. That would ignore the reality, though, that the South African government of the time was actually providing support, in the form of weapons and training, to IFP fighters.

Those dreadful years have left scars on hundreds of thousands of people, which persist to this day. That is why it is encouraging to see that the IFP and ANC are sitting down to have what are officially termed “high-level discussions”, but which many are characterising as “peace talks”.

The IFP is clearly looking to chart a new course for itself and has improved its electoral position markedly. Its venerable elder, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, is no longer the firebrand he once was and, indeed, these days, he is a voice of moderation and decorum in places like the raucous, childish House of Assembly.

His successor, Velenkosini Hlabisa, has a much lower profile but has probably been a major mover in efforts to mend fences with the ANC, as well as begin to position the IFP as a significant loyal opposition.

So many lives, so many resources and so much time was wasted in the violence. The rapprochement between the two is a breath of hopeful, fresh air in South African life.

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