Inkatha threat to Zimbabwean government

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Inkatha threat to Zimbabwean government

By Norm Dixon

Chief Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party has promised opponents of the government in neighbouring Zimbabwe that, should it achieve power in South Africa, it will work to remove Robert Mugabe from office. These plans for regional destabilisation were uncovered in an investigation by the progressive weekly New Nation.

Inkatha, which has long collaborated with apartheid and has been responsible for the deaths of thousands in vicious state-supported attacks on African National Congress supporters, hopes to form a conservative coalition with the National Party to rule South Africa following any future non-racial general election. During the recent whites-only referendum, Inkatha violence escalated in the townships in the run-up to the vote, and this was widely interpreted as an attempt to boost the pro-apartheid vote.

New Nation found that the IFP was involved in massive recruitment of Zimbabweans from Matabeleland province so as to increase its vote in a general election. Matabeleland is the traditional home of Zulu descendants.

IFP officials promised that if they joined the party, South African identity documents would be provided and jobs would be found for them.

The IFP is exploiting the belief of many Matabeleland Zimbabweans that their province is being neglected and starved of development projects. They also believe they are discriminated against in government employment. The province is one of the country's most underdeveloped, and unemployment is high.

Inkatha officials have promised that if Matabeleland residents join the IFP in their thousands and help vote in an Inkatha government, that government will move to unseat Mugabe.

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