84-757: Operation Vula (also known as Operation Vulindlela , Xhosa for Open the Road ) was a secret domestic programme of the African National Congress (ANC) during the final years of apartheid in South Africa. Initiated in 1986 at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka and launched in South Africa in 1988, its operatives infiltrated weapons and banned ANC leaders into the country, in order to establish an underground network linking domestic activist structures with
168-462: A noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. The word order is subject–verb–object , like in English. The verb is modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number. The Xhosa noun consists of two essential parts,
252-605: A 1920s cultural organisation for Zulus established by his uncle, Zulu king Solomon kaDinuzulu . The party was established in what is now KwaZulu-Natal , after which branches of the party quickly sprang up in the Transvaal , the Orange Free State and the Western Cape . Because of Buthelezi's former position in the African National Congress , the two organisations were initially very close and each supported
336-529: A Bantu language (approximately tied with Yeyi ), with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click. Xhosa is part of the branch of Nguni languages , which also include Zulu , Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele , called the Zunda languages. Zunda languages effectively form a dialect continuum of variously mutually intelligible varieties. Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to
420-490: A common enemy". During the phase of establishing a constitution for South Africa and prior to the first free elections in South African history, bloodshed frequently occurred between Inkatha and the ANC. Both Inkatha and the ANC attempted to campaign in each other's KwaZulu-Natal strongholds, and were met with resistance, sometimes violent, by members of the opposing party. Inkatha was also initially opposed to parts of
504-498: A diminishing extent ), and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and for non-native speakers. Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. The South African Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts in Xhosa on both radio (on Umhlobo Wenene FM) and television, and films, plays and music are also produced in the language. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa
588-513: A government puppet, along with other Bantustan leaders. His tribal loyalties and focus on ethnic interests over national unity were also criticised as contributing to the divisive programme of Inkatha. This led to a virtual civil war between Zulu loyalist supporters and ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal. Although Inkatha was allied with the African National Congress in the struggle against apartheid, they took opposing views on sanctions placed by
672-402: A lesser extent. Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction of Bantu languages . Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most commonly spoken South African language is Zulu. Xhosa is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa. As of 2003 approximately 5.3 million Xhosa-speakers, the majority, live in
756-519: A pluralist, shared future for South Africa in which all groups have equal rights. The party supports strong law & order policies, in particular calling for harsher penalties for people who commit violence against women and children. The IFP supports the Zulu monarchy and investing more powers and recognition of the constitutional monarch of the KwaZulu-Natal region. In 2023, the party criticised
840-483: A region whose primary language is Xhosa: (said to a group of people) Xhosa-speaking people have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the 16th century. They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa . Ancestors of the Xhosa migrated to the east coast of Africa and came across Khoisan -speaking people; "as a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance,
924-519: A short period of time." Commentators have admired the sophistication of the operation, and historian Stephen Ellis calls it "the most effective and impressive project ever mounted by the ANC." However, Ellis also notes that Vula arrived "too late to have a major effect on the strategic balance" in the negotiations to end apartheid . In 1986, the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), based in Lusaka , Zambia, approved
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#17327986878361008-611: A subsequent caucus meeting where both were present, Buthelezi read from a prepared statement attacking Woods. All the numbered copies were ordered to be "shredded" but some survived. After the 1994 elections, the IFP suffered a gradual decline in support. The party ceded control of the KwaZulu-Natal province to the ANC following the 2004 general election and its presence in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, its stronghold, started to become diminished. Party member Ziba Jiyane left
1092-445: A vowel, e.g. is andla / iz andla (hand/hands). The placeholder N in the prefixes iN - and iiN - is a nasal consonant which assimilates in place to the following consonant (producing an im- before vowels), but is typically absent in loanwords. Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Verbs use the following prefixes for the subject and object: The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits
1176-489: Is a Nguni language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe . Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8 million people and as a second language in South Africa, particularly in Eastern Cape , Western Cape , Northern Cape and Gauteng , and also in parts of Zimbabwe and Lesotho . It has perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants in
1260-659: Is a hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. The single original stanza was: Additional stanzas were written later by Sontonga and other writers, and the original verse was translated into Sotho and Afrikaans, as well as English. In The Lion King and its reboot , Rafiki the sagely mandrill chants in Xhosa. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War , Black Panther , Avengers: Infinity War , Avengers: Endgame , and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ,
1344-417: Is feature-matching its noun: /iN- + ɬɛ/ → intle"beautiful" (of a class 9 word like inja "dog") When aspirated clicks ( ⟨ch, xh, qh⟩ ) are prenasalised, the silent letter ⟨k⟩ is added ( ⟨nkc, nkx, nkq⟩ ) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks ⟨nc, nx, nq⟩ , and are actually distinct sounds. The prenasalized versions have a very short voicing at
1428-644: Is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable. Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated ⟨a⟩ [à] , ⟨á⟩ [á] , ⟨â⟩ [áà] , ⟨ä⟩ [àá] . Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for ⟨â⟩ and ⟨ä⟩ , which are each sequence of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones ( ⟨â⟩ high–low = falling, ⟨ä⟩ low–high = rising). Xhosa
1512-494: Is rich in uncommon consonants . Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. It has 18 click consonants (in comparison, Juǀʼhoan , spoken in Botswana and Namibia , has 48, and Taa , with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana , has 83). There is a series of six dental clicks , represented by the letter ⟨c⟩ , similar to
1596-509: Is still productive, as is shown by palatalization before the passive suffix /-w/ and before diminutive suffix /-ana/. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of
1680-676: The African National Congress ' close relations to Hamas and Iran following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and denounced antisemitism in South Africa. Mangosuthu Buthelezi , a former member of the ANC Youth League , founded the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (INCLM) on 21 March 1975. In 1994, the name was changed to Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). Buthelezi used a structure rooted in Inkatha , meaning "crown" in Zulu,
1764-479: The Apartheid period, founded the party in 1975 and led it until 2019. He was succeeded as party president in 2019 by Velenkosini Hlabisa . During the first decade of the post-Apartheid period, the IFP received over 90% of its support from ethnic Zulus . Since then, the party has worked to increase its national support by promoting social and economic conservative policies. In the 2019 general election ,
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#17327986878361848-497: The Bantu Education Act, 1953 . At present, Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary schools, but is largely replaced by English after the early primary grades, even in schools mainly serving Xhosa-speaking communities. The language is also studied as a subject in such schools. The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English (or Afrikaans, to
1932-719: The Eastern Cape , followed by the Western Cape (approximately 1 million), Gauteng (671,045), the Free State (246,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225). There is a small but significant Xhosa community of about 200,000 in Zimbabwe . Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District , Lesotho . The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from
2016-673: The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature to the Democratic Alliance . Nationally, the party lost eight seats in the National Assembly. The NFP factor also contributed to the IFP's decline on the national and provincial level. Buthelezi later said in 2019 that the reason the party had lost support, was because of ANC president Jacob Zuma being from the Zulu tribe . He insisted that the exodus voters leaving
2100-505: The Latin alphabet ; some of the letters have different pronunciations from English. Phonemes not represented by one of the 26 letters are written as multiple letters. Tone, stress, and vowel length are parts of the language but are generally not indicated in writing. Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a] , [ɛ~e] , [i] , [ɔ~o] and [u] written a , e , i , o and u in order, all occurring in both long and short . The /i/ vowel
2184-617: The National Director of Public Prosecutions and an apparent Mbeki ally, had probably been an apartheid spy, nicknamed "Agent RS452." They were ultimately unable to substantiate the allegation, which they said was based on the tentative conclusion of an investigation into Ngcuka by ANC intelligence, which Operation Vula had relied on. The specially appointed Hefer Commission , chaired by former judge Joos Hefer , investigated. The commission's report, released in January 2004, dismissed
2268-627: The Pietermaritzburg Midlands region, Thabo Mbeki was reportedly debarred by an IFP-affiliated traditional leader in Mafunze. Previously the stronghold of Moses Mabhida , this area has long been the site of heated clashes between the parties. The IFP's manifesto seeks the resolution to a number of South African issues, especially the AIDS crisis, in addition to addressing "unemployment, crime, poverty and corruption and prevent
2352-531: The Witswatersrand . The first Vula operatives, including Maharaj and Nyanda, entered South Africa secretly in 1987. Various other exiled mid- and top-level ANC personnel were also infiltrated into the country, whereupon they set about establishing military capacity and establishing links with underground ANC members – including ANC leaders recently released from prison, such as Govan Mbeki – as well as with members of other anti-apartheid groupings, especially
2436-511: The ANC could assert strategic control over the internal anti-apartheid struggle, arguably for the first time since its banning in 1960. Academic Kenneth Good has gone so far as to argue that "through Operation Vula, the ANC intended to terminate the UDF and the broad and deep democratisation it encouraged," commandeering control of the internal struggle. Operation Vula was primarily based in Natal and
2520-630: The ANC had been unbanned and Mandela, recently released, had taken over the ANC leadership following Tambo's stroke. However, in July 1990, during a raid in Durban , the Security Branch uncovered evidence of Operation Vula, including communications between Vula operatives and the ANC headquarters in Lusaka. Although a police officer claimed that an ANC member had passed the police information about Vula,
2604-544: The ANC in exile. It was responsible for facilitating the only direct line of communication between ANC headquarters and Nelson Mandela , who at the time was imprisoned and was discussing a negotiated settlement with the government on the ANC's behalf. The operation was disbanded in 1990, after its existence had been publicly revealed and eight of its leaders charged under the Internal Security Act with terrorism and plotting an armed insurrection. Operation Vula
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2688-529: The ANC maintained that the police had stumbled upon it by chance. A series of arrests followed, and nine operatives were charged with terrorism under the Internal Security Act of 1982. Those were Maharaj, Nyanda, Pravin Gordhan , Billy Nair , Raymond Lala, Dipuo Catherine Mvelase, Susanna Tshabalala, Dipak Patel, and Amnesh Sankar. Eight were brought on trial in October, accused of plotting "to seize power from
2772-542: The ANC of the early 2000s, with one internal group coalescing around former Vula operatives (mostly from Natal, mostly with strong links to the SACP, and aligned to Deputy President Zuma) and another around President Mbeki, who had not been involved in Vula. In September 2003, Maharaj and Moe Shaik (by then the former transport minister and a foreign ministry adviser respectively) leaked to City Press that Bulelani Ngcuka , then
2856-419: The ANC's campaign of violence against it, and an "impotent" attitude towards the attacks conducted against it by the ANC. At the first caucus discussion, Woods read out the 11-page paper in full and caucus members were generally positive about its frank nature. IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi was absent from that meeting but raised it at a meeting of the party's national council, which Woods did not attend. At
2940-441: The ANC, the operation was highly secret until it was uncovered in 1990 – for example, when Maharaj left Lusaka to establish Vula in South Africa, members of the ANC in exile were told that he was going to Europe for medical treatment. The operation was also financed secretly, through front companies and dummy bank accounts. Some logistical aspects of the operation were handled by allies from European anti-apartheid groups, especially in
3024-547: The IFP at the party's National General Conference in 2019. The party's Extended National Council pledged its support to Velenkosini Hlabisa , mayor of the Big Five Hlabisa Local Municipality , to succeed Buthelezi as party leader. The party grew its support in the May 2019 general elections and won back the title of official opposition in KwaZulu-Natal. Hlabisa became the leader of the opposition in
3108-604: The IFP came in fourth place nationally, winning 3.38% of the vote and 14 seats in the National Assembly . In the 2024 general election , IFP won 17 seats with 3.85% of the vote. In June 2024, Inkatha Freedom Party agreed to join the ANC-led government of national unity (GNU). Leader of the IFP, Velenkosini Hlabisa, became Minister of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) in
3192-652: The IFP occurred on ethnic grounds. In the 2016 municipal elections, the party's support grew for the first time since 1994. The party had reclaimed support in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. The ANC and DA both suggested that the NFP not being able to participate in the election, contributed to the party's surge in support. The party managed to retain control of the Nkandla Local Municipality , the residence of former ANC president Jacob Zuma . In October 2017, Buthelezi announced that he would step down as leader of
3276-643: The IFP to form the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco). Prominent IFP MP Gavin Woods and IFP ward councillors in KwaZulu-Natal joined his new party. After the party's results in the 2009 general elections , party members began debating a change in leadership for the 2011 local government elections. Buthelezi had previously announced his retirement but rescinded it. Senior IFP politician Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi wanted Buthelezi to step down and had supporters advocating for her to take over
3360-538: The Netherlands. From the mid-1980s, amid escalating "ungovernability" within South Africa, there was disagreement within the ANC as to how the end of apartheid should and would be secured. Though still banned in South Africa, the ANC in exile, through efforts spearheaded by Thabo Mbeki , had been meeting with prominent businessmen and government officials since at least 1987 to discuss a possible negotiated settlement; by then, Nelson Mandela , though still imprisoned,
3444-512: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that they had been arrested and killed by the Security Branch and their bodies thrown in the Tugela River . According to the testimony of a policeman, Ndaba and Shabalala were killed after refusing to turn on the ANC. Journalist Sam Sole of amaBhungane later suggested that relationships forged through Vula influenced the factional composition of
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3528-774: The allegation and called a further allegation by Shaik – that Ngcuka had used the National Prosecuting Authority to investigate the former ANC intelligence operatives who had uncovered his alleged duplicity (including Maharaj, Zuma, and Shaik's brother ) – "so implausible that it deserves no serious consideration." By then, human rights lawyer Vanessa Brereton had announced that she had been Agent RS452. Former Vula operatives include: IsiXhosa language Xhosa ( / ˈ k ɔː s ə / KAW -sə , / ˈ k oʊ s ə / KOH -sə ; Xhosa pronunciation: [kǁʰóːsa] ), formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa ,
3612-403: The beaten path – it's a minefield. Vula must strike out on a new road – to lay the indispensable foundations for a viable armed struggle by first creating, building and consolidating a strong, resilient, extensive political network that is self-protective, absorb shocks. This is precisely the task Vula has started tackling with startling vigour and effectiveness. A substantial and tested leadership
3696-534: The click sounds of the Khoisan languages". The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attests to a strong historical contact with a Khoisan language that did. An estimated 15% of Xhosa vocabulary is of Khoisan origin. John Bennie was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and early Xhosa linguist. Bennie, along with John Ross (another missionary), set up a printing press in the Tyhume Valley and
3780-586: The coalition. Policy proposals of the IFP include: In 2018, the party issued an official statement, penned by MP, Narend Singh, stating that the time had come to discuss the possibility of reinstating the death penalty in South Africa. Ideologically, the party has been positioned on the right-wing of the spectrum, although on its platform the IFP places itself in the political centre ground, stating it rejects "both centralised socialism, as well as harsh anything goes liberalism." The party states that it bases its values on Ubuntu/Botho tribal values and supports
3864-462: The consolidation of a one-party state;" said "party" is implied to be the ANC. Gavin Woods , one of the party's most respected MPs, drew up a highly critical 11-page internal discussion document at the request of the parliamentary caucus after a discussion in October 2004. In it, he said that the IFP "has no discernible vision, mission or philosophical base, no clear national ambitions or direction, no articulated ideological basis and offers little in
3948-452: The country… Vula and other similar projects did not in any way constitute the pursuance of a double agenda, nor did they constitute actions inconsistent with our search for a negotiated resolution. [If] anything, they strengthened negotiations rather than undermined them. – Nelson Mandela on Operation Vula in June 1991 However, such structures also had more immediate political uses. Over
4032-780: The discovery of Vula – and the arrest of high-profile ANC leaders – destabilised the ongoing process of negotiations. The media referred to the operation as "the Red Plot," and the ANC reportedly spent some time distancing itself from it, before ultimately admitting that it had been sanctioned at the highest levels. In August 1990, the ANC formally ended its armed struggle upon signature of the Pretoria Minute , according to Ellis motivated by "the embarrassment resulting from Vula's exposure." All Vula operatives were indemnified by mid-1991. Two ANC operatives detained in July 1990, Charles Ndaba and Mbuso Shabalala, were missing until 1998, when
4116-415: The early 1990s, Inkatha and ANC members were at war with each other, and Self-Protection Units (SPUs) and Self-Defence Units (SDUs) were formed, respectively, as their protection forces. As a Homeland leader, the power of Buthelezi depended on the South African state and economy. With anti-apartheid leaders inside South Africa and abroad demanding sanctions, Buthelezi came to be regarded more and more as
4200-532: The election, the party was registered as the Inkatha Freedom Party at the eleventh hour. However, due to their opposition to the constitution, concessions were made. KwaZulu-Natal, and thus all the other provinces, were granted double ballots for provincial and national legislatures, greater provincial powers, the inclusion of ' KwaZulu ' in the official name of the province (formerly ' Natal ') and recognition of specific ethnic and tribal groups within
4284-606: The event that the apartheid government was indeed negotiating in bad faith. Thus one of Vula's main objectives was to establish internal underground structures which could be mobilised in armed struggle if necessary – in one phrase, "potentially armed" structures. In December 1988, Tambo wrote to Maharaj: We need a sustained, ever growing and expanding military offensive. But we are unable to take off in any significant manner. We hit one disaster after another, continuously, year in and year out, precisely because we sought to run before we could walk, and kept on walking. Vula must not follow
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#17327986878364368-668: The first printed works in Xhosa came out in 1823 from the Lovedale Press in the Alice region of the Eastern Cape. But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. The first Bible translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore . The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with
4452-436: The following vowel. Fricatives become affricated and, if voiceless, they become ejectives as well: mf is pronounced [ɱp̪fʼ] , ndl is pronounced [ndɮ] , n+hl becomes ntl [ntɬʼ] , n+z becomes ndz [ndz] , n + q becomes [n͡ŋǃʼ] etc. The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb] . Prenasalisation occurs in several contexts, including on roots with the class 9 prefix /iN-/, for example on an adjective which
4536-482: The government by means of an armed insurrection" and "to recruit, train, lead, and arm a revolutionary army," while other operatives, including Ronnie Kasrils , went back into exile or further underground. The police also claimed to have seized twenty arms caches, one of which it claimed had contained a ground-to-air missile . Especially given that the ANC had recently signed the Groote Schuur Minute ,
4620-467: The illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. In keeping with many other Bantu languages , Xhosa is an agglutinative language, with an array of prefixes and suffixes that are attached to root words . As in other Bantu languages, nouns in Xhosa are classified into morphological classes , or genders (15 in Xhosa), with different prefixes for both singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify
4704-507: The influential UDF and COSATU. Notably, Vula operatives coordinated the ANC response to, and containment of, the scandal that arose around Winnie Madikizela-Mandela 's involvement in the 1989 death of teenaged activist Stompie Seipei . The military capacity of Operation Vula was never tested, but it did reportedly manage to smuggle into the country large amounts of weapons, which the ANC underground stored in various safe houses . The Truth and Reconciliation Commission later found that many of
4788-491: The initiation of Operation Vula, apparently having been lobbied to do so by Mac Maharaj . Maharaj was to be Vula's commander inside South Africa, with Siphiwe Nyanda as his deputy. In Lusaka, the operation was overseen by ANC President Oliver Tambo and by Joe Slovo , the general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ellis has suggested that the SACP's influence over the operation
4872-615: The international community on South Africa. In 1984, Buthelezi travelled to the USA and met personally with President Ronald Reagan and argued divestment was economically harming black South African workers. Fearing erosion of his power, Buthelezi collaborated with the South African Defence Force , and received military training for Zulu militia from SADF special forces starting in the 1980s as part of Operation Marion . Inkatha members were involved in several massacres in
4956-429: The language spoken in the fictional African nation of Wakanda is Xhosa. This came about because South African actor John Kani , a native of the Eastern Cape province who plays Wakandan King T'Chaka, speaks Xhosa and suggested that the directors of the fictional Civil War incorporate a dialogue in the language. For Black Panther , director Ryan Coogler "wanted to make it a priority to use Xhosa as much as possible" in
5040-500: The legislature, as he was the party's premier candidate. Buthelezi confirmed his intention to stand down as leader. Hlabisa was elected president of the IFP at the party's 35th National General Conference in August 2019. In 2024, the IFP, which was by now in a coalition agreement with the ANC , as well as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and National Freedom Party (NFP) parties would regain
5124-421: The maintenance of an armed underground, was intended as a useful corollary to the process of negotiations. Among the potential benefits of maintaining an armed underground were that it could improve the balance of power in the ANC's favour during the negotiations; that it could help protect ANC supporters during local conflicts with Inkatha and others; and that it could provide the ANC with an "insurance policy" in
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#17327986878365208-511: The onset which then releases in an ejective, like the prenasalized affricates, while the phonemically nasal clicks have a very long voicing through the consonant. When plain voiceless clicks ( ⟨c, x, q⟩ ) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal ( ⟨ngc, ngx, ngq⟩ ). /ǀ̃/ , /ǁ̃/ , /ǃ̃/ /ǀ̃/ , /ǁ̃/ , /ǃ̃/ Palatalisation is a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/ . While palatalisation occurred historically, it
5292-441: The oral occlusion is then very short in stops, and it usually does not occur at all in clicks. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. (They may also be voiced between vowels in some speaking styles.) The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable. When consonants are prenasalised , their pronunciation and spelling may change. The murmur no longer shifts to
5376-628: The other in the anti-apartheid struggle. However, by the early 1980s the Inkatha had come to be regarded as a thorn in the side of the ANC, which wielded much more political force through the United Democratic Front (UDF) , than Inkatha and the Pan Africanist Congress . Although the Inkatha leadership initially favoured non-violence, there is clear evidence that during the time that negotiations were taking place in
5460-484: The party's leadership. She later resigned from the party and formed a breakaway party, the National Freedom Party (NFP). The NFP obtained 2.4% of the national vote and 10.4% in KwaZulu-Natal in the 2011 municipal elections, mainly at the expense of the IFP. In the 2014 general elections, the party achieved its lowest support levels since 1994. The party lost its status as the official opposition in
5544-463: The preceding decade, the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and other anti-apartheid trade unions and community organisations had emerged as politically influential at the grassroots level, in the absence of an effective ANC leadership inside South Africa. By infiltrating senior leaders into the country and establishing effective intelligence networks,
5628-472: The prefix and the stem. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. Which they call 'amahlelo' The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. Before monosyllabic stems, e.g. ili so (eye), ulu hlu (list). is - and iz - replace isi - and izi - respectively before stems beginning with
5712-593: The prison by Mandela's lawyer, Ismail Ayob , and were transmitted to Tambo through Vula's communication system. Operation Bible was an ANC intelligence project involving the running of an Afrikaner agent, nicknamed the "Nightingale," recruited in 1986 from within the Security Branch of the South African Police . It was led by Moe Shaik and in 1987 was endorsed by the leadership of the ANC in exile, including Tambo and Jacob Zuma , who oversaw
5796-521: The project as head of ANC intelligence. By 1989, the project had effectively been merged into Operation Vula, and Shaik had been appointed Vula's head of intelligence. According to Shaik, the project got its name from Tambo, who had said of certain reports from the Nightingale that "I believe they are as true as the Bible." Operation Vula continued to operate secretly, with Mandela's blessing, even once
5880-560: The pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [tʃʼ] , the spelling ⟨tsh⟩ may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [tsʰ] and [tʃʰ] . The breathy voiced glottal fricative [ɦ] is sometimes spelled ⟨h⟩ . The ejectives tend to be ejective only in careful pronunciation or in salient positions and, even then, only for some speakers. Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Similarly,
5964-437: The proposed South African constitution regarding the internal politics of KwaZulu, and, in particular, they campaigned for an autonomous and sovereign Zulu king (King Goodwill Zwelethini kaBhekuzulu ), as head of state. As a result, Inkatha initially refused to register its intention to participate in the 1994 election, a necessity in order to receive votes. However, once it became obvious that its efforts were not going to stop
6048-629: The province. On election day, the IFP displayed its political strength by taking the majority of the votes for KwaZulu-Natal . After the dismantling of apartheid system in 1994, the IFP formed an uneasy coalition in the national government with their traditional political rival, the ANC. Despite these challenges, the coalition was to last until 2004, when the IFP joined the opposition benches. The ANC/IFP rivalry, characterised by sporadic acts of political violence , has been firm since 1993. In 2004, while campaigning in Vulindlela, an IFP bastion in
6132-654: The run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections, including the Trust Feed massacre on 3 December 1988, and the Boipatong massacre on 17 June 1992. In November 1993, the IFP signed a solidarity pact with the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging , with the AWB providing the IFP with military training and agreeing that "Boer and Zulu would fight together for freedom and land should they be confronted by
6216-618: The script, and provided dialect coaches for the film's actors. Inkatha Freedom Party The Inkatha Freedom Party ( IFP ; Zulu : IQembu leNkatha yeNkululeko ) is a conservative political party in South Africa , which is a part of the current South African government of national unity together with the African National Congress (ANC). Although registered as a national party, it has had only minor electoral success outside its home province of KwaZulu-Natal . Mangosuthu Buthelezi , who served as chief minister of KwaZulu during
6300-401: The sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk"; a series of six alveolar lateral clicks , represented by the letter ⟨x⟩ , similar to the sound used to call horses; and a series of alveolar clicks , represented by the letter ⟨q⟩ , that sounds somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle. The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with
6384-416: The tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time , but that is uncommon. The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. That is, da may be pronounced [dʱa̤] (or, equivalently, [d̥a̤] ). They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. They are truly voiced only after nasals, but
6468-414: The way of current, vibrant original and relevant policies". Woods also warned the party that "it must treat Buthelezi as the leader of a political party and not the political party itself". Woods pinpointed 1987 as the year when the IFP started losing ground as a political force. Before 1987, Woods contends, the party had a strong, unambiguous national identity. He further criticised the IFP's inability to end
6552-464: The weapons were used in local conflicts involving ANC members during the early 1990s. A central objective of Vula was the establishment of a single, reliable channel of communication between internal activists and the ANC headquarters in Lusaka. This was achieved through a purpose-built encrypted communication system, which was developed by Tim Jenkin in London and ran off personal computers. The system
6636-420: Was Miriam Makeba , whose Click Song #1 (Xhosa Qongqothwane ) and "Click Song #2" ( Baxabene Ooxam ) are known for their large number of click sounds. In 1996 , the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is part of the national anthem of South Africa , national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia , and the former anthem of Zimbabwe and Namibia . It
6720-513: Was also in contact with the government. Others, however, believed that negotiations would not necessarily preclude the need for an armed struggle and even the seizure of power by force. Maharaj was one adherent of this view. In the past, Operation Vula has been perceived – and was portrayed by the apartheid government – as straightforwardly seeking to establish internal networks for a violent insurrection, in line with this latter view. However, subsequent historical research has suggested that Vula, and
6804-462: Was approved by the ANC National Executive Committee but thereafter proceeded on a strictly need-to-know basis, with many ANC members unaware of its existence and many ANC leaders unaware of the details of its activities. It was commanded by Mac Maharaj and Siphiwe Nyanda , whom ANC President Oliver Tambo congratulated in 1988 on not only "the immense potential of the Vula concept but also its tremendous yield in terms of what has been achieved within
6888-402: Was developing within the country. The time had arrived where the conditions had been created for the leadership of our movement, who had been driven into exile, to begin relocating itself within the country despite the formidable power of the apartheid state. The time had arrived that while relocating itself that leadership had to merge with the forces and leadership that had been developing within
6972-506: Was such that Vula might properly be considered an SACP operation, although the extent of the SACP's formal ownership of the operation is unclear. The NEC agreed from the outset that Vula was to proceed on a "strictly need-to-know basis," administered through Tambo's office as the "President's Project," meaning that even the NEC would not receive reports on its activities. Particularly due to concerns about high-level informants or infiltrators within
7056-506: Was used for such purposes as reporting intelligence, reporting operational instructions and outcomes, debating strategies, and coordinating meetings. In mid-1989, Maharaj obtained Tambo's approval to set up secretly a direct line of communication between Tambo and Mandela, who was then in Victor Verster prison and engaging in preliminary negotiations with the apartheid government. Their messages to each other were smuggled in and out of
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