South Africa The Other Black Leader

By SCOTT MACLEOD JOHANNESBURG

"I think that, more than anyone in this country, it is I who have brought matters to where they are today." The words of President F.W. de Klerk? Or black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela? No, the speaker at last week's press conference was Mangosuthu Buthelezi, 61, the self-confident president of Inkatha, chief minister of KwaZulu and prince of the Zulus.

Whether in his well-cut business suits or ceremonial skins and feathers, Buthelezi is the country's other black leader. When Mandela and De Klerk meet in Cape Town this week to debate obstacles to negotiations, Buthelezi will be conspicuously absent. Unlike the African National Congress leader, he sees no roadblocks to immediate talks. Many whites and conservative blacks, not to mention Western leaders such as George Bush and Margaret Thatcher, admire Buthelezi's readiness to compromise and his embrace of capitalism. Antiapartheid militants, however, dismiss him as a puppet who has long collaborated with the white minority government against the interests of the poor and disenfranchised black majority.

Yet as South Africans begin efforts to redraw their political map, even Buthelezi's critics must acknowledge that he is a force to be reckoned with. His power and the ruthlessness of many of his supporters are more apparent than ever in the three-year-old civil war between Inkatha, the Zulu-based mass political and cultural movement, and the A.N.C., which has turned the green hills of Natal province into South Africa's worst killing field. Since Mandela's release in February, Buthelezi's supporters have repeatedly invaded A.N.C. strongholds with shotguns and pangas. The upsurge in violence has left some 350 dead and forced 7,000 to flee.

How to deal with Buthelezi has caused an embarrassing disagreement between Mandela and fellow A.N.C. officials. While in prison, Mandela infuriated some in the congress by writing a conciliatory letter to Buthelezi. Recently Mandela proposed meeting with Buthelezi as a way of cooling down the conflict, but then he abruptly withdrew the offer. Mandela admitted last week that some of his comrades "nearly throttled me" over the issue.

Most of the A.N.C. regards Buthelezi, who formed Inkatha in 1975 after working with the congress, as a sellout. They accuse him of abetting apartheid by serving as chief minister of KwaZulu, one of the ten "homelands" where blacks can exercise their political rights. The A.N.C. also condemns Buthelezi for opposing the "armed struggle" and international sanctions against Pretoria.

But, as at least Mandela appears to understand, Buthelezi cannot be wished away. He has built up a solid constituency, though it is less representative than he would admit. Most of Inkatha's estimated 1.7 million members are Zulus residing in the KwaZulu homeland within Natal. And some of Buthelezi's policies make sense. Mandela's adherence to socialism seems outdated compared with Buthelezi's advocacy of free enterprise. The Zulu chief's repeated calls for compromise are now being loudly echoed by Mandela. And Buthelezi's pioneering Natal-KwaZulu Indaba, a formula for black-white power sharing in local government, is a concept that could be tried nationally.

But Inkatha's latest rampages in Natal make a mockery of Buthelezi's desire to be the prince of peace. There is no evidence that Buthelezi personally ordered the attacks, and he has strongly condemned the slaughter. Inkatha leaders claim that the upsurge in violence followed A.N.C. provocations, and in fact the bloodshed erupted in 1987 largely because of the A.N.C.'s determination to wipe out Buthelezi's influence.

If Buthelezi's biggest mistake was working with South Africa's whites while other black leaders went to prison or into exile, he never committed the bigger sin that the A.N.C. long feared: cutting a separate deal with whites in exchange for becoming the country's first black President. Buthelezi always insisted that Mandela be freed as a precondition to his joining in negotiations on South Africa's future.

What role will Buthelezi now play? He certainly intends to be one of the leaders who deliberate the country's future. "I am at the center stage, where I have always been," he said in an interview. "I have always believed that the problems of South Africa would be resolved through peaceful means. What have I to regret?"

Although many in the A.N.C. seem to accept that Inkatha has a right to sit at the negotiating table, it remains fashionable to dismiss Buthelezi as a political lightweight. After last week's press conference, attended by a mere dozen journalists, Buthelezi groused that the media refuse to take him seriously. There is little doubt that Mandela's words will continue to be those that are most closely scrutinized inside and outside the country. But the architects of any future political settlement will ignore the Zulu prince only at South Africa's peril.