South Africa: Information about a Zulu Youth Movement and/or Zulu Youth Revolutionaries in the Cape Town area and any relationship with the African National Congress (ANC)
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 February 1993 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | ZAF12809 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, South Africa: Information about a Zulu Youth Movement and/or Zulu Youth Revolutionaries in the Cape Town area and any relationship with the African National Congress (ANC), 1 February 1993, ZAF12809, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac872c.html [accessed 3 November 2019] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Specific information on the requested subject could not be found among the sources currently available to the DIRB in Ottawa. However, the following information may be of interest.
According to a legal advisor at the Legal Resource Center in Cape Town, there are very few Zulus in the Cape region (2 Feb. 1993). Most Zulus are concentrated in the Natal province (Ibid.).
According to Africa Contemporary Record 1986-87, 38 per cent of the Inkatha is made up of a Youth Brigade (1988, B 750). The same source continues that the Inkatha Youth Brigade "stressed the importance of education in 'a free SA' and appealed to Black leaders not to turn the school into 'battlefields'" (Ibid.).
According to a South African defence lawyer, the Inkatha Youth Brigade stands in an antagonistic relationship to the ANC (1 February 1993). The main objective of the Inkatha is to create an independent, self-governing state. According to an article published in the New York Times on 10 November 1987, members of the Inkatha Youth Brigade, the youth wing of the Zulu political movement committed a lot of violent acts in Natal Province in 1985. According to the same source, in 1987
revenge killings by anti-apartheid Zulu youth groups affiliated with the United Democratic Front has stepped up the conflict. More than seventy people have been killed in the past seven weeks alone. Victims, often as young as twelve and thirteen years old, have been hacked to death with machetes, beheaded or burned alive after being stabbed and beaten with sticks (Ibid.).
Although no specific information could be found on the relationship of the Zulu Youth Movement and the African National Congress (ANC), the following information on the relationship between the Inkatha Freedom Party led by Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the ANC might be helpful.
According to an article published in The Observer, on 4 October 1992, in the mid-eighties a "great black uprising began, when young Zulus began rallying the ANC's surrogate, the United Democratic Front" (Ibid.). As the civil war progressed in South Africa, "Buthelezibacked by his ruthless police force has steadily lost support among young Zulus...shrinking his constituency to...tribal Zululand" (Ibid.). According to the same source, outside the Zulu tribe Buthelezi receives very little support. On a scale of figures his support translates into only eight per cent compared to the ANC's over sixty per cent, and De Klerk's national Party's 25 per cent (Ibid.).
The ideological and political differences between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC today are briefly summarized in the attached Opposing Proposals which was sent to the DIRB by the Canada South Africa Cooperation in Ottawa.
According to the director of the Canada-South Africa Cooperation, the Zulu Youth Movement and/or the Zulu Youth Revolutionaries if it exists under such a name, would be against the African National Congress (29 Jan. 1993). Conflicts between the Zulu and other groups are political and not racial (Ibid.). The major Zulu group is the Inkatha Freedom Party led by Chief Buthelezi (Ibid.). The primary agenda of the Inkatha Freedom Party is to become involved in the negotiation process and eventually to gain power for itself (Ibid.). In order to achieve this goal the party does not refrain from the use of violence (Ibid.).
Additional or corroborating information is not currently available to the DIRB in Ottawa.
References
Director, Canada-South Africa Cooperation, Ottawa. 29 January 1993. Telephone interview.
Legal advisor, Legal Resources Center, Cape Town. 2 February 1993. Telephone interview.
Legum, Colin and Marion E. Doro, eds. 1988. Africa Contemporary Record: 1986-87 Annual Survey and Documents. New York: Africana Publishing Company.
The New York Times. 10 November 1987. "Zulu Chief Agrees to Meet with Freed Nationalist" (NEXIS).
The Observer [London]. 4 October 1992. Allister Sparks. "Desperate Buthelezi Plays Power Gambit," p. 5.
South African defence lawyer, Ottawa. 1 February 1993. Telephone interview.
Attachments
Opposing Proposals. [London]. 1992. British Defence and Aid Fund for South Africa.
The New York Times. 10 November 1987. "Zulu Chief Agrees to Meet with Freed Nationalist" (NEXIS).
The Observer [London]. 4 October 1992. Allister Sparks. "Desperate Buthelezi Plays Power Gambit," p. 5.
