No love lost between Zuma and Buthelezi
IFP LEADER iNkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi has claimed that Jacob Zuma used him to get access to King Goodwill Zwelithini, then snubbed him.
Buthelezi said he and Zuma did not have a relationship.
“There have only been two occasions where we had a one-on-one meeting since he became president,” said the 89-year-old.
In a radio interview yesterday morning, Buthelezi said there had been nothing good about Zuma’s legacy although the two leaders had been credited for working together to end the political violence between their rival parties in the 1990s.
“On the face of it, Mr Zuma can be quite warm, and laugh and smile, but we did not have any relationship like I had with Madiba when I worked under him. When I worked under Thabo Mbeki in the cabinet, I had a good relationship with him.”
Buthelezi said he had been prepared to vote in Parliament against Zuma. He said Zuma stopped Mbeki from appointing him deputy president. “Mbeki appointed me as the deputy president, but Mr Zuma said Mbeki must demand from me that I give away the premiership of KZN, which we held, in exchange for making me the deputy president,” he said.
He said when Zuma arrived in the country after exile, he approached late IFP stalwart the Reverend Celani Mthethwa “to approach me to introduce him to the king”.
Buthelezi said after he had facilitated a meeting between the king and Zuma, the two became close friends, but then Zuma distanced himself from him.
Buthelezi said Zuma’s recent visit to Ulundi to meet the king, apparently to seek advice on how to deal with his recall by the ANC, was because of the friendship he had built between the two.
He said he once approached Zuma in Parliament to complain about his behaviour towards him. Zuma promised to meet him but never honoured the agreement, Buthelezi said.
“The first one-on-one meeting was at a hotel in Durban after he had been appointed the leader of the ANC. He told me he wanted the ANC and IFP to operate as we had done under Madiba and Mbeki.”
Buthelezi said the second time he met Zuma was at the presidential residence, King’s House, in Durban where Zuma had told him members of the IFP were no longer happy with him leading the party he had formed in 1975. “He said to me ‘step down’.” Buthelezi still holds resentment against Zuma for allegedly conspiring to split the IFP, which led to former party national chairperson Zanele Magwaza-Msibi defecting with a large group of members to form the National Freedom Party. “I refused to take his advice (to step down) because at that time he was brewing this split in my party, and financing it,” he said.
Buthelezi pledged his support for Cyril Ramaphosa. “I have no qualms with Ramaphosa. I’ve known him for a long time, and I don’t see why my party would not support his election as the president,” he said.