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Dear friends and fellow South Africans,

Much has been made of my call for a meeting between the IFP and the
NFP to address the violence that has erupted in our parties. We have lost
several members to murder and brutality. While the police are investigating
whether these incidents were politically motivated, and are trying to find
the culprits, we as leaders must send a clear message that the violence has
to stop.

This has been the foundation of my political message for more than 40 years.
I founded Inkatha yeNkululeko yeSizwe on the principles of non-violence,
unity and cooperation; the same principles that underpinned the founding of
the African National Congress by my uncle in 1912. While the ANC deviated
from this original identity, I did not.

I paid a high price for not falling in line with the ANC's mission-in-exile
when it launched the armed struggle. I rejected the notion that the time had
come for a so-called Just War, and I rejected the People's War that was
unleashed by the ANC and UDF. To my mind, bloodshed was not the answer. I
maintained my call for negotiations and passive resistance.

KwaZulu Natal bore the brunt of the People's War, as the ANC sought to
secure political hegemony after liberation. Some 20,000 people were killed
in the black-on-black violence of the eighties and early nineties. A good
friend of mine, Ms Sally Tollin, who today released her new book "Salute to
Shenge", admits that her inspiration to write evaporated in 1987 because
"South Africa became hell".

This succinct and emotional description of those dark days says it all. As
one of the few liberation leaders who was not banned or in exile, I went
from place to place pleading for an end to the violence. I maintained a
long-standing friendship with Mr Nelson Mandela and we wrote to each other
throughout his incarceration. In the last of his letters to me before he was
released, he looks forward to our planned meeting to try to stop the
violence.

When we met, we signed a joint communiqué that committed us to attending and
addressing rallies together, to signal to our supporters that we sought
reconciliation. Soon thereafter I received an invitation from the community
of Taylor's Halt to address a meeting, and I invited Mr Mandela to accompany
me. Although he said he would, he was later prevented from doing so by
provincial leaders of the ANC, whom he said "almost throttled" him for
wanting to meet with Buthelezi.

But I never gave up on my call for joint rallies, or my call for an end to
the violence. The advent of democracy did not see an end to the bloodshed.
We continued to lose members and leaders to violent attacks. Most of these
murders have never been solved. I therefore pressed on in my pursuit of
reconciliation with the ANC and our parties established the three-a-side and
five-a-side committees to find a way forward.

I regret that reconciliation has never been pursued by the ANC with the same
tenacity. Even now, as the ANC prepares to celebrate its centenary, the IFP
awaits a response from the ANC's National Chairperson on how we can use
these celebrations to complete the unfinished agenda of reconciliation
between our two parties.

With this background, I was surprised by an editorial in The Witness today
that heralds my peace initiative with the NFP as "a giant step forward and
one that displays a political maturity that was non-existent in the dark
days of our past." I thought Mr Yves vanderHaeghen would know better. The
call for peace and reconciliation has characterized my political career more
than anything else that I have done. It did not suddenly start with the NFP.

Long before Mrs KaMagwaza-Msibi was born, I was advocating non-violence. She
found a home in the organization I founded because she agreed with the
principles I had long espoused. It was my principles that made me the target
of vilification and my life was threatened more times than I care to
remember. There have been several assassination attempts on my life.

Thus I know the anxiety Mrs kaMagwaza-Msibi feels when she says that her
life has been threatened. The National Commissioner of Police himself
visited me last year to convey intelligence of a planned attack on IFP
leaders, and insisted that my security be increased. It is a difficult way
to live.

But, as a leader, one cannot be consumed with self-concern. My concern is
for our members and supporters. It is distressing that a war of words has
erupted over the political affiliation of Mr Titus Mthembu, who was murdered
near Vryheid last week. Mr Mthembu, like many NFP supporters, was a member
of the IFP. Police have yet to determine whether his murder was politically
motivated or not, which makes speculation over which party he belonged to
far less relevant than the fact that he is dead.

It is this fact that motivates my call for talks. It is the need for the
violence to end that drives me to take what The Witness calls a "giant step
forward". Knowing the countless steps I have taken in the direction of
reconciliation over my lifetime, this does not seem so significant to me. It
will prove to be a giant step forward only when the killing ends.

Yours in the service of our nation,