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122 | denis beckett<br />
to the grandfather in the outhouse weren’t good enough. for<br />
him it’s too late but for his neighbour it’s not. Smother him in<br />
order, order, all around, visible people in a fabric that envelops<br />
saints and envelops warlords too.<br />
for the first day of the case the Durban Supreme court was<br />
packed. The Inkatha team included Oscar Dhlomo, the heirapparent,<br />
and Buthelezi’s wife Princess Irene. If glares were<br />
lasers I’d have evaporated on the spot. Buthelezi was standing<br />
next to the dock with his secretary eric Ngubane, and refused to<br />
shake my hand. I stood there holding it out like a tailor’s dummy,<br />
and was not impressed. I couldn’t then embarrass Ngubane<br />
by offering it to him, so we had a brief uptight conversation<br />
devoid of normal greeting. That would be odd anywhere but it<br />
was doubly odd in light of the extra weight attached to african<br />
handshakes and how-are-yous. Later Buthelezi thawed and<br />
we civilly agreed in the corridor on the strengths of Durban’s<br />
colonial architecture.<br />
This was the first of Buthelezi’s defamation claims to come<br />
to judgment. Previously they had been settled or decided on<br />
technicalities. even up to the last day I was enjoined to drop<br />
it. Over and over, well-wishers and trouble-avoiders and some<br />
of my advertisers urged me to “be wise” and to “consider the<br />
implications”. I don’t know what “wise” is. I did know I wasn’t<br />
apologising for an honest critique of a combative politician. If<br />
you give it out you’ve got to take it. That’s not only fairness, it<br />
is a clear part of libel law.<br />
Buthelezi wasn’t shy of handing out the brickbats. He must<br />
hold several records. I once heard him denounce Nthato Motlana<br />
at huge length at Jabulani in Soweto in front of thousands<br />
of foot-stomping men wielding weaponry. (I hotfooted to<br />
Motlana’s house three kilometres away to warn him. Motlana<br />
laughed it off, asking if I expected him to live life on the run.)<br />
One year Buthelezi’s speech opening the KwaZulu Legislative<br />
assembly took a week to deliver and was marked by character<br />
assassinations – of a defector from Inkatha, of the secretary<br />
of the Pietermaritzburg chamber of commerce, and of Oliver
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