Mangosuthu Buthelezi
The abject failure of the ANC to prevent a Boer takeover of South Africa proved to be the last straw for the organization's moderate faction. As the ANC's leaders were killed or exiled by Hertzog's regime, the ensuing power struggle for the organization's remnants was won by none other than Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Officially only the hereditary leader of the Buthelezi tribe, Prince Mangosuthu is the de facto leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the largest ANC splinter group. Mangosuthu and the chief ideolouges of the IPF are steadfast in their belief that the ANC's extremism was the root of its failure, and that only by cooperating with sympathetic white governments will racial parity be achieved. In Spite of this moderation, the IPF goals are no less radical than those of the ANC, and the backlash from the Boer's horrific treatment of South Africa's natives has only further convinced the tribal leaders who prop-up Mangosuthu's government that segregation has to end, one way or another.
The thin line The Prince has to walk between ideological radicalism and his pragmatic strategy is represented by the unstable alliance of tribes that make up Mangosuthu's political front. While it is little more than an informal arrangement upheld almost entirely by personal loyalty to Mangosuthu, at a disadvantage in industrial capacity and military experience, the alliance nevertheless carries with it the ANC's unbreakable spirit. This makes an arrangement with Viljoen's moderate whites all the more pressing, for should Mangosuthu prove unable to fulfill his promises of a negotiated end to segregation, the IFP's more extremist elements could gain the upper hand.
- People
- South African people
- Potential heads of state