Predictions of ANC-Inkatha deal dismissed as media `hype'

PREDICTIONS that a deal mad "be imminent to merge the Inkatha Freedom Party and the "African National Congress in KwaZulu Natal…

PREDICTIONS that a deal mad "be imminent to merge the Inkatha Freedom Party and the "African National Congress in KwaZulu Natal province have been dismissed as "media hype".

The "miracle deal" as the Johannesburg Sunday Times described it yesterday has not been put formally to the IFP's national leadership. No decision on a provincial alliance let alone a merger between the two parties was taken by the IFP national council at its meeting at the weekend, The Irish Times has learned.

The only national council decision of relevance to a provincial alliance or, more remotely, a merger is one authorising local IFP officials to form alliances with rival parties at local level, if they judge it to be in the interests "of the community. It is not a directive to them to do so, merely a resolution making it possible for them to move in that direction.

The ANC has generally adopted a less aggressive stand towards the IFP since Mr F.W. de Klerk's National Party quit the government of National Unity in May. But several IFP leaders are sceptical of the ANC's change in tack and suspect it might be a manoeuvre to split the party.

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Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's IFP has meanwhile celebrated its capture of the biggest share of the vote in local government elections in KwaZulu Natal. Future historians may, however, look back and conclude that the jubilation had more in common with a wake than a victory party.

They could point out that the IFP's share of the vote fell nearly six percentage points from 50.3 to 44.5, compared with the 1994 provincial result, and that the IFP failed to capture control of any major town.

But the IFP has been able to enjoy the "last laugh" to use the words of its secretary general, Mr Ziba Jiyane. This is because of, its overwhelming victory in rural areas, where it has the backing of the vast majority of chiefs.

However, urbanisation is a dominant force in South Africa and a party which cannot capture a single town of any size in the province where it is strongest faces a bleak future.

The IFP's predicament is made worse by its reliance on chiefs. On the insistence of the IFP, chiefs are ex-officio members of regional councils.

In Africa as a whole, the power of chiefs is in decline South Africa, where the ANC has opted to press for government by democratically elected representatives is no exception.

The IFP's close alliance with chiefs in KwaZulu Natal has led ANC propagandists to identify his, core ideology as "feudalism rather than as the IFP insists federalism.

Reuter reports:

President Nelson Mandela awaits a hero's welcome when he pays a four day state visit to Britain this week. Universities are falling over themselves to award honorary degrees, and parliament has accorded him the rare privilege of an address in Westminster Hall.

Mr Mandela, who arrives in London tonight, has insisted on a tour of Brixton in south London. Instead of hosting a return banquet for Queen Elizabeth, he has invited her to lunch at the Dorchester Hotel.