Mg buthelezi biography of albert
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In 1998 when President Nelson Mandela was in Washington to receive a Congressional Order, Buthelezi served as Acting President. From time to time, he even acted up as president when Nelson Mandela was abroad.
He retained his position after the 1999 elections, but relations with the ANC again began to fray.
A row over new immigration regulations ended with the bizarre spectacle of President Thabo Mbeki taking legal action against a member of his own government.
"I am not aware," Chief Buthelezi said later, "of any world precedent in which a president not only sued his own minister but went so far as trying to get a cost order against him in his personal capacity."
After the 2004 elections, Inkatha - rebranded as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) - returned to the opposition benches.
Five years later, the IFP lost electoral ground against the ANC's new leader, Jacob Zuma, who was himself a Zulu.
His grandfather Myamana Buthelezi was Prime Minister to King Cetshwayo. Though his subjects did not refute this status, the government only recognised him as Chief in 1957. His tenuous and conflictual relationship with the ANC deteriorated further, and he was not included in the cabinet of President Mbeki’s second term of office.
This biography is from South African History Online.
His tribal loyalties and focus on ethnic interests over national unity was also criticised as contributing to the divisive programme of the regime. The court decided in his favour on the ground that the government had not met its own Black Constitution Act of 1972 which required consultation with the people of Ingwavuma and also the Kwazulu Territorial Authority.
His academic progress was however not seriously hampered because the University of Natal allowed him to attend lectures and sit for the Fort Hare examinations. In the run up to the election he withdrew from negotiations and political violence erupted once more between IFP and ANC supporters. From 1934 to 1943 he was a pupil at the Impumalanga Primary School.
Internal strife subsequently led to the collapse of the alliance. He was also instrumental in the formation of the South African Black Alliance in which he was joined by the Labour Party and the KwaNgwane Homeland leader. He attended rallies and for a, sometimes shared a platform with the Progressive Federal Party leader, Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert.
In a position contrary to that of the ANC, and in line with his growing co-operation with the Government, Buthelezi opposed anti-apartheid sanctions.
His mother was the daughter of King Dinizulu, and granddaughter of King Cetshwayo. Just before the first democratic election he reconsidered, and precipitated a last minute rush to include the IFP on the ballot papers. He went on to study at Adams College in Amanzimtoti where he matriculated.
Buthelezi studied History and Bantu administration at the Fort Hare University in 1948.
In 1950 he took part in the student protests against the visit of Governor General G Brand Van Zyl, and as a result was expelled from the University. On 14 April 2004, his party’s performance in the general election waned dramatically. With ballot papers already printed, Buthelezi's photograph had to be attached to each voting slip with a sticker.
South Africa's new constitution required the victorious ANC to form a multi-party government, in a form of transitional power-sharing.
It was at this University that his short-lived involvement in liberation politics developed.
In 1951 he found clerical work in the Department of Bantu Administration. The following year he married Irene Mzila, a nurse, and they had three sons and four daughters.
In 1982 he opposed Governments plan to cede the Ingwavuma region in northern KwaZulu to the Swaziland government.
As a Homeland leader, his lifeline depended the South African state and economy.