Inkatha’s Attempted Truce with ANC
On 27 November 1985, the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (aka “Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe”) proposed a truce with the African National Congress (ANC) in Lusaka, Zambia, as an effort to calm violent clashes between members of the two parties and to cover its role in the perpetuation of such violence. The Secretary General of Inkatha, Oscar Dhlomo, communicated the peace offer to the ANC in exile, as Inkatha “consistently” maintained that it was not responsible for the violence between the ANC and itself. In an attempt to bring itself closer to the ANC, it deceitfully blamed violence on the apartheid government.
Chief Gatsha Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a former member of the ANC Youth League, founded Inkatha on 21 March 1975, using a structure rooted on what was a 1920s cultural organisation for the Zulu speaking population, known as “Inkatha ka Zulu” (“Zulu Council”), which was established by his uncle, Zulu King Solomon kaDinuzulu. Because of Buthelezi’s former position in the ANC, the two organisations were initially very close, and each supported the other in the anti-apartheid struggle. However, by the late 1970s, tensions began emerging between Gatsha Buthelezi and other leaders of the liberation struggle within the country, as he firmly asserted himself within the apartheid Bantustan system.
In London, 1979, the two parties established a co-operative relationship and mutual respect, and “It was al
