By RANJENI MUNUSAMY —
The granting of parole to Apartheid killer Eugene de Kock and the renaming of a Cape Town street after FW de Klerk has provoked high emotion and debate. Rightly so. Dialogue and interrogation of issues is how the nation maintains its dynamism and ensures awareness and accountability. The problem is that much of the debate is based on conjecture, conventional wisdom and recycled information, and far too little on facts. Hence we are still debating whether De Klerk ended Apartheid and consider Mangosuthu Buthelezi to be a sweet old man, known for long speeches. Distorted history leads to distorted dialogue. And forgetting leads to injustice.
Get Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi within reach of a microphone, and you will no doubt be regaled with his version of history. It is usually about how he was encouraged by the ANC to establish Inkatha inside the country to oppose the Apartheid regime, and how he then became one of the foremost liberation fighters. Buthelezi rarely fails to mention his relationship with Nelson Mandela and how much of a contribution he made as a minister in Mandela’s cabinet.
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