But the ANC did win substantially, and the IFP was suspicious of it. Questions quickly emerged - guided by IFP sources no less - about the distribution and handling of ballots and how the ballots of a sizeable population of illiterate voters were completed. The IFP threatened a formal challenge of the election results in Quazulu-Natal. The ANC responded that the elections were overseen by a non-partisan, entirely independent Elections Commission that could easily prove it was not influenced by or told to benefit the ANC. The IFP was aware of this, but any sense of trust that previously existed among the IFP and ANC ministers was long gone. The final indicator of this was when Mr. Mbechi re-appointed Jacob Zuma as Deputy President. Mr. Mbechi also formally re-appointed the IFP leader Mr. Buthelezi to his previous post as Minister for Home Affairs, but Mr. Buthelezi rejected the offer. The six other IFP ministers also refused to take their seats with the cabinet.
The day after refusing to join the cabinet, Mr. Buthelezi announced that his son had died of HIV/AIDS, but he might have survived if Mr. Mbechi were not so reluctant to confront the HIV/AIDS problem. The statement was not at all in the way of a spurned politician trying to politicize his son's death. It was said more as an attempt to acknowledge and confront the problem in a direct way - something Mr. Mbechi still refuses to do.
The threat to litigate the election is now gone - it was solved by a Constitutional provision - but the ANC/IFP breach remains very real, and to some extent Mr. Buthelezi might be a formidable opponent to Mr. Mbechi than even the leaders of the New National Party. Mr. Mbechi now takes credit that his cabinet displays more broad-based diversity because although the IFP withdrew, more women now have cabinet level ministries. Twenty-two of the forty-nine ministries are now led by women.
But it will take more than appointing a few more women to the cabinet for Mr. Mbechi to make good his pledge to improve equality. A recent IMF report suggests that South Africa has made comparatively little progress towards economic and social equality during the last ten years. Ironically, those two topics are very prominent on the IFP agenda. Therefore stand by for the next round of Mbechi versus Buthelezi. It promises to be anything but dull.
