By: Natasha Archary

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP Founder and President Emeritus of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has passed at the age of 95.
The Zulu Traditional Prime Minister’s death comes after complications following a recent procedure for back pain management.
On 26 July, Prince Buthelezi underwent a small procedure on his back but was readmitted to hospital on Tuesday, 01 August, where he was being monitored in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The Prince, who celebrated his 95th birthday on 27 August, is being remembered for his arduous political career which began when he commenced studies in politics between 1944 and 1946.
Buthelezi passed on Saturday morning, 09 September, just a few days after being discharged from hospital.
President @CyrilRamaphosa announces passing of the Honourable Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation and Monarch https://t.co/NpiM2azdta
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) September 9, 2023
A Prince was born
Born into the Zulu Royal Family in 1928, as the son of Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu (King Solomon’s sister), and Inkosi Mathole Buthelezi, the King’s Prime Minister, Prince Buthelezi claimed his hereditary position as Inkosi in 1953.
Completing his studies at the University of Natal, the Prince’s career saw him involved in the liberation struggle with the likes of Walter Sisulu and the late South African President, Nelson Mandela.
With the ANC banned by the apartheid government between April 1960 and February 1990, Prince Buthelezi founded the IFP in 1975, to reignite the struggle for liberation in the country.
Through the IFP, Prince Buthelezi campaigned endlessly for the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, and for an end to apartheid through negotiations.
Despite his undeniable role in securing the country’s political freedom, Prince Buthelezi found himself vilified by the ANC’s mission-in-exile, when the IFP refused to embrace an armed struggle and call for international sanctions and disinvestment.
IFP found itself the target of the ANC’s People’s War, in which some 20 000 lives were lost in black-on-black conflict.
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi never abandoned his call for peaceful resistance, non-violence, and negotiations.


At the time of his death, the Prince was still an active Member of Parliament, the Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu monarch and Nation, and the President Emeritus of the IFP.
In 2019, the wife of Prince Buthelezi, Princess Irene Audrey Thandekile Buthelezi, died peacefully after a long illness.
The Prince and Princess had eight children, five of whom are sadly deceased.
Now Read: A Tribute:Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi



