South Africa’s newest foundation has been launched in Durban whose chairperson of the board of trustees will be Velenkosi Hlabisa, the Inkatha Freedom Party leader, APA learnt on Friday.
Hlabisa said the new body, known as the Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi Foundation, was formed to promote peace as well as gender equality – “and to empower the most vulnerable members of our society by promoting peace through negotiations and non-violent resolution of conflicts wherever they occur.”
“To promote reconciliation, social cohesion, multiculturalism and unity in diversity with the objective of nation-building in order to heal the wounds of the past and secure a shared future in which the rule of law prevails and equality is upheld in another reason,” Hlabisa said.
The foundation is also expected to promote education as a priority and a fundamental right to support research and innovation, as well as to preserve the rich history and legacy of one of South Africa’s longest-serving political leaders — the 94-year-old Buthelezi — who founded Inkatha, which later became the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1975.
Buthelezi led the party until 2019, when he announced that he would not seek re-election as its leader.
The party elected Hlabisa as his successor at the party’s 2019 National General Conference.
Prior to 1994, Prince Buthelezi was instrumental in ensuring that traditional leaders continued to be custodians of the land in South Africa’s rural areas.
NM/jn/APA