JOHANNESBURG — Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a controversial South African politician and conventional minister of the Zulu nation, was laid to relaxation Saturday after dying on the age of 95 this week.
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a eulogy at Buthelezi’s funeral in Ulundi within the KwaZulu-Natal province, the place he had been dwelling, praising him for his work as a lawmaker and dedication to finally take part in South Africa’s peaceable transition to a democratic state.
Mourners together with leaders of rival political events, authorities officers, the clergy and group members gathered to pay their final respects to a person who continues to divide opinion in South Africa.
Buthelezi based the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1975, which was liable for a few of the worst political violence seen within the nation within the Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties.
Although against apartheid – the coverage of racial segregation carried out by the white minority authorities in South Africa earlier than the nation’s transition to democracy in 1994 – Buthelezi was at odds with liberation leaders who labeled him a sell-out.
He headed the executive area of Zululand, one of many “homelands” the apartheid authorities created to implement the segregation coverage.
PHOTOS: Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a controversial South African political determine, laid to relaxation
Buthelezi was one of many longest serving lawmakers in South Africa and served as a minister in Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet regardless of earlier tensions with Mandela and the African National Congress get together.
Three former South African presidents, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma, attended his burial.
“At certain points in our history, there were deep divisions between the two leaders (Mandela and Buthelezi), but they reconciled and made peace for the sake of rebuilding our country,” stated Ramaphosa.
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