Buthelezi , Mangosutho Gatsha , b 1928 , Chief , South African politician

Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was born on 27 August 1928, in what is now the province of Kwazulu-Natal. He was the son of Chief Mathole Buthelezi and Princess Magogo. He was educated at Fort Hare University. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League while attending college. In 1952 he married Irene Audrey Thandekile Mzila. In 1953 he became Chief of the Buthelezi tribe. He was involved in the administration of the Zulu people from 1953-1968. In 1976 he became the first Chief Minister of Kwazulu (the 'Bantustan' designated for Zulu people under the system of Apartheid). He also revived Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe, the Zulu National Cultural Liberation Movement, as an anti-apartheid organisation, now the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). In the 1980's tensions mounted between Inkatha and the ANC, and the early 1990's saw increasingly violent clashes between supporters of the two parties. Buthelezi was particularly opposed to the ANC's support for international sanctions against Apartheid. Inkatha boycotted the 1993 multiparty talks that wrote the new South African constitution, but participated in South Africa's first multiracial elections in 1994. In 1994, Buthelezi was appointed Minister of Home Affairs in the cabinet of President Nelson Mandela. In June 1999, Buthelezi declined a conditional offer by the South African President Elect Thabo Mbeki to be Deputy President. The post was offered in exchange for his party's surrender of leadership of Kwazulu-Natal province. It was decided to retain Buthelezi as Minister for Home Affairs when these negotiations collapsed.