PRINCE Mangosuthu Buthelezi had a good relationship with amakhosi, as he himself is also Inkosi for the Buthelezi clan.
Amakhosi trusted him and considered him a chieftain father as he usually fought with them in government and fought for their land. He was also the son of Inkosi Mathole Buthelezi, the former traditional prime minister of the Zulu monarch.
Although Buthelezi was the official Inkosi for the Buthelezi clan, he preferred to be called Prince of KwaPhindangene. He did not want the Amakhosi to be called chiefs, as this name belittled them.
He earned the trust of the amakhosi and the people of KZN when he reclaimed the northernmost part of KZN, Ingwavuma, from Mozambique and eSwatini and established the Ingonyama Trust to protect Zulu land.
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In government and politics, Buthelezi always put the amakhosi and the land under the amakhosi first.
In 1982, he waged a political and legal battle to prevent the government from carrying out a proposed land deal that would have resulted in the capture of Ingwavuma, the Mozambican border, by eSwatini.
Buthelezi argued that the apartheid government intended to use the land deal to expand South African influence in eSwatini.
In 2022, a statue of Buthelezi was erected in Jozini, Ingwavuma, to give him his flowers while he could still smell them, for his role in the struggle to keep Ingwavuma in KZN
Prince Buthelezi was always on the side of the amakhosi as an Inkosi and fought for amakhosi's rights. In 1993, he established the Ingonyama Trust to protect amakhosi land in KZN from government.
Buthelezi and his political party, the IFP, even threatened to boycott the 1994 general elections if the government did not approve the Ingonyama Trust.
After the Ingonyama Trust was included in the constitution, the IFP participated in the first democratic elections.
At that time, all amakhosi who are Zulus automatically belonged to the IFP. Later this changed, but the majority of amakhosi remained in the IFP.
One of the leaders of ANC, Mzala Nxumalo, published a book called Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief with a Double Agenda, and this book angered Buthelezi, saying that the book was the ANC bible to make him look bad.
Amakhosi also trusted Buthelezi more when he fought for King Zwelithini and King Misuzulu to ascend the throne during the throne disputes.
