cover image South Africa: My Vision of the Future

South Africa: My Vision of the Future

Gatsha Buthelezi. St. Martin's Press, $0 (152pp) ISBN 978-0-312-05651-3

Leader of Inkatha, the Zulu organization of South Africa, and chief minister of the KwaZulu government, Buthelezi calls for a multiracial, multiparty democracy to replace apartheid through peaceful negotiations. He warns that any attempt to overthrow apartheid violently would end in ``totally destructive civil war,'' and implies that his rival, Nelson Mandela, favors the creation of a one-party socialist state bereft of parliamentary democracy. Buthelezi praises president F. W. de Klerk as ``sincere in his attempts'' to end apartheid, yet elsewhere he suggests that de Klerk's proposals smell like ``apartheid in a different guise.'' While calling for an end to black infighting, he ignores reports of Inkatha's collusion with de Klerk's government or the participation of police thugs in Inkatha's violence. This platform statement raises unsettling questions about both Buthelezi's politics and Mandela's. Publication coincides with the author's expected visit to the U.S. Photos. (Dec.)