{"id":516,"date":"2016-04-09T10:58:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T10:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2016\/04\/09\/did-zuma-play-the-yugoslav-card-terry-bell-2016\/"},"modified":"2016-04-09T10:58:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T10:58:41","slug":"did-zuma-play-the-yugoslav-card-terry-bell-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2016\/04\/09\/did-zuma-play-the-yugoslav-card-terry-bell-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Zuma Play the “Yugoslav Card”? – Terry Bell (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nDID ZUMA PLAY THE \u2018YUGOSLAV CARD\u2019?
\nby Terry Bell
\nIt was the \u201cYugoslav card\u201d \u2014 the threat of territorial fragmentation \u2014 that enabled
\nPresident Jacob Zuma to ensure that the ANC leadership would rally behind him.
\nAccording to a member of the ANC executive (NEC), Zuma implied that KwaZulu-
\nNatal might rebel should he be axed.
\nThis raised again the spectre of the violence of the early 1990s as Inkatha Freedom
\nParty impis fought ANC defence units. But it also raised fears of a regional
\nbreakaway since Zuma, as an ANC leader, played a major role in brokering peace
\nbetween the IFP and ANC and claims support across the political spectrum in the
\nprovince.
\nHe made it clear that, unlike Mbeki, he would not go quietly and that, at the very
\nleast, this would result in a split in ANC ranks much more serious than the Congress
\nof the People breakaway following Mbeki\u2019s sacking. ANC secretary general, Gwede
\nMantashe, who also serves on the central committee of the Communist Party (SACP),
\nmade this point when he reported that the \u201ctop six\u201d leaders of the ANC were
\nunanimous in their support of Zuma. He noted that the ANC would not act against
\nZuma and so \u201ctear itself apart\u201d.
\nAn SACP statement was even more explicit, noting that \u201ctearing the ANC apart at
\nthis point, is a recipe for disaster for our country as a whole\u201d. Only an apparently
\nvery small minority of the NEC felt that \u201cZuma\u2019s bluff should be called\u201d. But none
\nraised this at the meeting. \u201cZuma has always been known as a Zulu nationalist,\u201d a
\nveteran former ANC exile noted.
\nAs if to illustrate that he was not bluffing, Zuma addressed a 15 000 strong crowd of
\nsupporters in Melmoth in the uTugulu district of KZN on the weekend, calling on
\nthem to unite as Africans. \u201cEven if you are in different political parties, you should
\nknow things that you can vote for separately and things that you need to vote for as a
\nunited nation,\u201d he said.
\nA group of local and municipal leaders at the gathering raised three fingers,
\nindicating that they supported a third term in office for Zuma.
\nHowever, whether the majority of the people of KZN would support breaking away
\nfrom the rest of the country is moot, but this is not the first time that a separate state
\non the eastern seaboard has been promoted. In 1960 the province, then Natal, was the
\nonly one to vote, in a whites-only referendum, against South Africa becoming a
\nrepublic.
\nThis led to a short-lived attempt by a group of United Party politicians in Natal to
\nrally support for a breakaway from South Africa. The only obvious sign of this was
\nthe fact that Pietermaritburg continued to fly the British union flag for years after the
\nrepublic was declared.
\nBut the idea of KZN as a separate entity within a federal South Africa was also
\ncanvassed several years later by Hendrik Verwoerd, the premier dubbed the architect
\nof apartheid. Under international pressure, Verwoerd sought ways to placate growing
\ncritics and established a secretive Kommunikasie Navorsings Kommittee (KNK –
\nCommunicaions Research Committee) to aid him.
\nThis was headed by a dedicated segregationist, the psychologist, Professor F. W.
\nBlignaut of the University of Pretoria. Secretary to the committee was Paul Heylen
\nwho was recruited from Belgium and who later played a part in the international
\npropaganda \u2014 \u201cMuldergate\u201d \u2014 campaign instituted by Eschel Rhoodie.
\nAccording to Heylen, the KNK was briefed by Verwoerd to subtlely canvass opinions
\nabout the possibility of a federated South Africa with Natal (KZN) following its own,
\nnominally non-racial policies, with \u201cseparate development\u201d applying to the rest of the
\ncountry. Verwoerd seemed convinced that such a solution would placate world
\nopinion and stave off possible investment and trade sanctions.
\nAdding fuel to conspiracy fires, Heylen maintained that Verwoerd was to have
\nannounced such a policy in parliament on the day he as stabbed to death by a
\nmessenger, Dmitri Tsafendis. The papers containing the speech he was to have
\ndelivered disappeared.
\nHow Mozambique born Tsafendis, officially classified \u201ccoloured\u201d and a former
\nmember of the Communist Party of SA became a messenger in the apartheid
\nparliament is one of the many question that remain to be answered about this episode.
\nTerry Bell
\nwriting, editing, broadcasting
\nspecialising in:
\npolitical\/economic analysis and labour
\nP.O Box 373, Muizenberg 7950
\nSouth Africa
\nTel: +27 +(0)21 788 9699
\nSkype: belnews \u2022 Twitter: @telbelsa
\nBlog: terrybellwrites.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}