Mangosuthu Buthelezi was a formidable opponent who gave as good as he got
, a man with whom I have enjoyed what could best be described as an adversarial relationship for most of my adult life.
I have expressed more than my fair share of critical — often negative, sometimes derogatory — opinions about Shenge, the traditional honorific by which he was respectfully known — over the years, when he was alive and able to respond. For me to do so now, when he can no longer take me to task for it, would be wrong, an act of cowardice, a show of disrespect to a formidable opponent who gave as good as he got, right up until the very end — and towards myself.
For nearly 40 years there has been an exchange of words — stories and columns on my part, and letters to the editor, legal demands and press statements on that of Shenge — between the two of us.I first encountered the Prince of kaPhindangene, one of the many titles by which the former KwaZulu chief minister and founder of Inkatha yeNkululeko yeSizwe, the forerunner of the IFP, was known, in 1986.
Shenge was KwaZulu chief minister then — as well as minister of police and minister of economic development.
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