LAUNCH OF THE BIOGRAPHY
ON MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI - BY BEN TEMKIN
MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP
MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
Exclusive Books, Durban: January 26, 2003
I must really praise Mr Ben Temkin for having had the courage to deal once again with one of the most controversial issues of South Africa, namely Mangosuthu Buthelezi. I often wonder why so much has been written about me which is incorrect and made intentionally controversial, when in fact the historical reality of anything I have done, said or written in the past half a century should have given rise to no controversy. I think that it is almost an ailment in our national psyche which causes people to deal with matters which do not fit into the current paradigm of thought or the prevailing notions of political correctness by labeling them "controversial" and dismissing them.
I have always thought that my life and commitment in politics should be relatively simple to analyse and reconstruct from an historical viewpoint. I have been in the public eye and under constant and often hostile public scrutiny since I was an ANC Youth League activist at Fort Hare University. Since then, my political opponents have kept an eye on and analysed everything I have done and said, to try to find fault with it. No part or stage of my life has been outside the public record. I have never been in exile, out of politics or, for that matter, even on any significant vacation. My daily activities are registered in the chronicles of government and in those of my Party, and the many organisations which I have served throughout my life.
Furthermore, since an early age whenever I spoke publicly I have always bothered to prepare a written speech. I have done the same in respect of private and off the record meetings which held any significance. I have written hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pages to record everyday what I have said and to whom. This is an almost impossible burden for a politician because, by placing everything on record, I force myself to remain committed to anything I have ever said and, therefore, to remain consistent. Obviously, as Cicero put it,
"tempora mutat et nos cum illa", which means "times change and we change with them". As I change and my thoughts evolve, I allow for that to be recorded in my own writings and in the minutes of anything I have said and done.
Given this degree of transparency in such an enormous amount of source documentation, I have always thought that writing about me should be a subject which gives rise to no controversy and should be relatively simple. Yet, I know of the enormous difficulties that many people have encountered, to the point that they were forced to abandon the project. Once, someone who was about to write an extensive research about me told me that the great difficulty in writing about me was in choosing between focusing on the reality of what I have done, said and written, on the one hand, or focusing on the controversy which my opponents have created around me, on the other. He wanted to write a book about me ignoring the controversy, and found that to be impossible. He then tried to write that book taking into account the controversy, but he found that such controversy was so artificial and so removed from me that he just could not mix the two things together. Therefore, he then tried to talk about the controversy, but found it impossible to cut through it and expose its fictitious nature without the benefit of extensive bibliography about me which could correct the record. In the end, he abandoned the project.
Mr Temkin has achieved where many others have failed. He has written an important page of South African history, which will form the basis for much greater research. A friend of mine advised me that perhaps I should not praise this book too much, because that may reduce his sales. However, I will take this risk on his behalf, and I must congratulate Mr Temkin on a job well done. I must also congratulate him for the enormous difficulties which he had to overcome to bring this project to light. He does not know that through my own sources I know that the enormous difficulties he had in writing this book were by far surpassed by the enormous difficulties he encountered in publishing it. I know that he encountered great difficulties in publishing a book about Buthelezi which was not a Buthelezi-basher.
Mr Temkin is man of integrity and this book is a product of his professional integrity. It reflects his opinion and his own reading of historical events which took place in South Africa and which involved me. It is the reading of somebody who cares about this country and cares about the truth. I respect his opinion and his motives and recognise the great quality of this book. Obviously, being the protagonist of the events which he portrays, I would have often described them differently, expressed different opinions about them or placed different emphasis on what had to be portrayed and what had to be omitted. Fifty years of commitment in politics during the most intense and complex period of South African history cannot be summarised by any single word, and I am sure that even if I myself had endless time at my disposal to write my memoirs, my own account of events would be somehow deficient and inaccurate.
Mr Temkin's contribution is a monumental piece of research and places on record a number of factual realities which are of the utmost importance for a clear understanding of the history of South Africa. I am very humbled by the fact that Mr Temkin spent so much of his time and efforts in writing about me. Somehow, one feels that whatever one has done is not worth somebody else spending so much time writing about it. However, I then realise that the issue of setting the record straight about Mangosuthu Buthelezi goes far beyond Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
If it were up to me alone, I would have no concern about history portraying an accurate picture of what I did, said or wrote. My conscience is clear and I am very proud of having done what I felt was the right thing to do at any given time. My family and friends and those who have been close to me for so many years know well that throughout my life I have committed an endless amount of work and efforts to the cause of social progress and the prosperity of all South Africans. God knows what I have done and how much it cost me to do it, and on His judgement alone I rely. Therefore, with my conscience clear, with my reliance on God's judgement, and with the benefit of the approval of my family and friends, I am not the type of person who really particularly cares about the judgement of history.
However, I realise that the judgement of history is not just about me. It is about the millions of people who followed me for the past fifty years, and the thousands who worked with me day and night, in the pursuance of a common dream. My story is their story. History's judgement of me will be history's judgement on the validity of their dreams and the merits of the cause to which they dedicated so much of their life and efforts.
Therefore, I hope that this book of Ben Temkin may begin a process which will eventually bring to full light the efforts and sacrifice of all those who followed me and all those who worked with me. I hope this book will please them. I hope that this book will also be read by those who have been my political opponents and even by my enemies, in the hope that by getting to know me better, they may realise that as far as I am concerned no one is my opponent and no South African will even be my enemy. I have dedicated my life to promoting a vision of South Africa as a place of peace and prosperity for all. Especially at this point of my life, I believe that there is no greater or nobler effort than that of reconciling conflicting interests and creating out of them a synthesis which uses their energies to move forward the common good. This activity of reconciliation is that to which nobler politicians should dedicate their lives.
Mr Temkin's book is an important milestone in the historiography of Mangosuthu Buthelezi. However, obviously it is not the final book on the matter, merely on account of the fact that I am still alive and I have in my heart and spirit the compulsion to do much more for South Africa. In fact, I often feel that whatever I have done up to this point has been nothing but preparation for what history expects from me in the immediate future. Therefore, I hope that as Mr Temkin has updated the biography he wrote about me some twenty years ago through this book, he will continue to follow my activities to ensure that whatever is to come will become part of the third book about me, which I sincerely wish him to write in a few years.