Chief cheer-leader
Sir: It is hardly surprising that Fergal Keane found Chief Buthelezi hostile to him considering his blatantly anti-Inkatha bias, of which the article 'Just another tinpot dic- tator' (19 February) was typical.
The fact that Buthelezi's words were 'lost amid the disbelieving jeers' of a university audience in the Orange Free State says more about free speech in universities than about his stance on democracy. Tory politicians are regularly unable to get a fair hearing at say, Sussex University, but it in no way vitiates the validity of their message.
Buthelezi, the democratically elected Chief Minister of Kwah Zulu, is holding out, as Mr Keane well knows but does not choose to mention, for two separate ballots in the forthcoming elections in April. He wants one for the national and one for the
LETTERS
provincial legislatures. This, as the Times said in a recent leader, 'makes perfect democratic sense'. To argue, as Mr Keane does, that it means Buthelezi 'fears the voice of the people' is ludicrous.
The reason that Mr Keane has, despite his best efforts, managed to find no splits in the Inkatha Freedom Party is not because 'free political activity is largely unknown' but because it is generally understood that at such a period of supreme trial and dan- ger for the Zulu nation unity is essential. Would Mr Keane interpret the lack of public criticism of Churchill during the Battle of Britain as showing that 'free political activity was largely unknown' in 1940?
It is a pity that as well as getting this sort of BBC received wisdom on our radio air- waves we should also be subjected to it in the pages of The Spectator.
Andrew Roberts
14 Cadogan Gardens, London SW3
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