DID ZUMA PLAY THE ‘YUGOSLAV CARD’?
by Terry Bell
It was the “Yugoslav card” — the threat of territorial fragmentation — that enabled
President Jacob Zuma to ensure that the ANC leadership would rally behind him.
According to a member of the ANC executive (NEC), Zuma implied that KwaZulu-
Natal might rebel should he be axed.
This raised again the spectre of the violence of the early 1990s as Inkatha Freedom
Party impis fought ANC defence units. But it also raised fears of a regional
breakaway since Zuma, as an ANC leader, played a major role in brokering peace
between the IFP and ANC and claims support across the political spectrum in the
province.
He made it clear that, unlike Mbeki, he would not go quietly and that, at the very
least, this would result in a split in ANC ranks much more serious than the Congress
of the People breakaway following Mbeki’s sacking. ANC secretary general, Gwede
Mantashe, who also serves on the central committee of the Communist Party (SACP),
made this point when he reported that the “top six” leaders of the ANC were
unanimous in their support of Zuma. He noted that the ANC would not act against
Zuma and so “tear itself apart”.
An SACP statement was even more explicit, noting that “tearing the ANC apart at
this point, is a recipe for disaster for our country as a whole”. Only an apparently
very small minority of the NEC felt that “Zuma’s bluff should be called”. But none
raised this at the meeting. “Zuma has always been known as a Zulu nationalist,” a
veteran former ANC exile noted.
As if to illustrate that he was not bluffing, Zuma addressed a 15 000 strong crowd of
supporters in Melmoth in the uTugulu district of KZN on the weekend, calling on
them to unite as Africans. “Even if you are in different political parties, you should
know things that you can vote for separately and things that you need to vote for as a
united nation,” he said.
A group of local and municipal leaders at the gathering raised three fingers,
indicating that they supported a third term in office for Zuma.
However, whether the majority of the people of KZN would support breaking away
from the rest of the country is moot, but this is not the first time that a separate state
on the eastern seaboard has been promoted. In 1960 the province, then Natal, was the
only one to vote, in a whites-only referendum, against South Africa becoming a
republic.
This led to a short-lived attempt by a group of United Party politicians in Natal to
rally support for a breakaway from South Africa. The only obvious sign of this was
the fact that Pietermaritburg continued to fly the British union flag for years after the
republic was declared.
But the idea of KZN as a separate entity within a federal South Africa was also
canvassed several years later by Hendrik Verwoerd, the premier dubbed the architect
of apartheid. Under international pressure, Verwoerd sought ways to placate growing
critics and established a secretive Kommunikasie Navorsings Kommittee (KNK –
Communicaions Research Committee) to aid him.
This was headed by a dedicated segregationist, the psychologist, Professor F. W.
Blignaut of the University of Pretoria. Secretary to the committee was Paul Heylen
who was recruited from Belgium and who later played a part in the international
propaganda — “Muldergate” — campaign instituted by Eschel Rhoodie.
According to Heylen, the KNK was briefed by Verwoerd to subtlely canvass opinions
about the possibility of a federated South Africa with Natal (KZN) following its own,
nominally non-racial policies, with “separate development” applying to the rest of the
country. Verwoerd seemed convinced that such a solution would placate world
opinion and stave off possible investment and trade sanctions.
Adding fuel to conspiracy fires, Heylen maintained that Verwoerd was to have
announced such a policy in parliament on the day he as stabbed to death by a
messenger, Dmitri Tsafendis. The papers containing the speech he was to have
delivered disappeared.
How Mozambique born Tsafendis, officially classified “coloured” and a former
member of the Communist Party of SA became a messenger in the apartheid
parliament is one of the many question that remain to be answered about this episode.
Terry Bell
writing, editing, broadcasting
specialising in:
political/economic analysis and labour
P.O Box 373, Muizenberg 7950
South Africa
Tel: +27 +(0)21 788 9699
Skype: belnews • Twitter: @telbelsa
Blog: terrybellwrites.com