A NOTE ON INKATHA MEMBERSHIP

Abstract

THE REMARKABLE, SUSTAINED upsurge of popular resistance to apartheid in South Africa is inevitably calling forth urgent consideration within the white ruling bloc and beyond concerning the manner in which the revolutionary impetus can be stemmed by a restructuring of the presently discriminatory political and economic system into a 'fairer', non-racial and, above all, more stable form. Within such a context, discussion of Chief Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha movement as an agent of reform is to the fore in that not only is it seen as sufficiently moderate and responsible as to have committed itself to making federal and/or power sharing options work but also in that it is perceived in liberal-reformist circles as possessing the necessary minimum degree of legitimacy as a black nationalist movement to make a reformist pro ject viable. 1 Correspondingly, as the ANC or other movements (most notably the United Democratic Front, UDF) grow in stature in tandem with the growing challenge they mount, so attempts are madc if not to delegitimize them then at least to suggest that their predominance is diluted by widespread Black support for other less demanding and, it is often implied, more democratic bodies. A recent piece by Woodrow Wyatt (a former British Labour M.P.) which was given prominence in The Times is a case in point. Thus, after suggesting that the ANC looks forward to establishing some form of 'Trotskyist Government' and lambasting the Western media for unhelpfully highlighting the extent 'of outrages by the South African authorities rather than of less exciting constructive aspects', Wyatt continued as follows: