Late IFP leader Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi was described by IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa as a unifier of diverse people at an event in his honour in Chatsworth, Durban on Sunday.
During his keynote address, Hlabisa said the passing of Buthelezi on September 9, had a profound impact on South Africa and was felt throughout the world.
He said the former IFP leader was a champion of freedom, democracy and peace, adding that Buthelezi did more in his lifetime to secure and entrench these ideals than any have done within this generation.
“When we stood at his funeral in Ulundi and marked the respect accorded to him by heads of state and international dignitaries, it was evident that Prince Buthelezi’s legacy extends well beyond South Africa.
“But here, in South Africa, within our own communities, what we have lost was truly felt. Because Prince Buthelezi was a son of this soil – he was a man of the people, who lived, walked and served among ordinary South Africans his entire life.
“His greatest commitment was to his own people.”
However, Hlabisa said above all, he was a South African who considered the Xhosa, Sesotho, Pedi, Afrikaner, English, coloured and the Indian South Africans in the same way.
“While retaining our individual identities and heritage, we are one nation under the banner of a sovereign South Africa. That was Prince Buthelezi’s core belief. And it is a belief that influenced the way he worked for our country. He sought, always, to build bridges between people of different backgrounds and cultures, highlighting our commonalities, instead of our differences.
“Buthelezi understood that regardless of our skin colour, the language we speak at home and the culture we were born into, we share the same dreams and the same fears,” he said.
He said Buthelezi’s legacy included the value of self-help, self-reliance; the importance of servant leadership; the necessity of empowering ourselves through education; and in leading by example, he taught the priority of leaving a legacy.
“The reality is that we will all leave a legacy. It may be great, or it may be insignificant. It may be good and beneficial to those we leave behind, or it may be damaging and something we wish would not be remembered. But we all leave a legacy. I believe that the greatest lesson of Prince Buthelezi’s life is the importance of leaving a legacy one can be proud of, a legacy that continues to serve after our own time on earth is done.”
The Mercury