For Western Consumption Only : South Africa: Chief Buthelezi is no fan of democracy at home.

Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, chief minister of South Africa’s Kwazulu homeland and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, is in Washington to meet with President Bush and conservatives in Congress, who have described Buthelezi as a black South African democrat committed to a multiparty political system, human rights, nonviolence and the free market.

While Buthelezi certainly emphasizes these ideals before audiences in the West, his commitment to democracy does not extend to the Kwazulu homeland, where criticism of his administration is not tolerated and where no opposition party has ever existed. Even schoolteachers must join Buthelezi’s party or lose their jobs.

Last month, Buthelezi wrote to libraries at nine South African universities demanding that books critical of his activities be removed from their shelves and threatening trouble if the libraries did not comply.

Despite his professed adherence to human rights and nonviolence, Inkatha has increasingly used violence to intimidate its political opponents. In 1986, Buthelezi told the Inkatha Central Committee: “God help anybody who stands in our way. . . . If they do not understand it the next time, they will certainly understand it in the life hereafter. We are the true sons and daughters of Africa, and those of us who come from our part of the country have warrior blood coursing through our veins.”

After the speech, armed Inkatha vigilantes attacked a meeting of the National Education Crisis Committee, a group allied with the United Democratic Front. Thomas Shabalala, commander of the Inkatha regiment, stated: “I long for the day when there will be open war between the UDF and Inkatha. I will leave hundreds of UDF supporters dead on the battlefield.”

In response to this year’s escalating violemce between Inkatha supporters and the African National Congress, the ANC has proposed that township residents be prohibited from possessing weapons of any kind. Buthelezi opposes the prohibition, insisting that Inkatha supporters be permitted to carry spears and clubs that he terms “traditional tribal weapons.”

More ominously, Inkatha supporters have been using AK-47 submachine guns to kill and wound dozens of political opponents. Last week, a former South African military intelligence officer, Maj. Nico Basson, described to journalists a secret government operation to supply AK-47s to Inkatha for attacks on the ANC.

Inkatha has increasingly relied on violence because popular support for Buthelezi is declining. A 1990 poll that asked urban blacks who they wanted as president found that ANC leader Nelson Mandela was the choice of 66%, 20% supported President Frederik de Klerk, and 2% Buthelezi.

Finally, despite Buthelezi’s stated respect for free markets, Kwazulu’s economy is dominated by officially sanctioned monopolies. For example, a license is generally required to conduct a business or open a factory, and such licenses are reserved for the Inkatha leadership. Kwazulu’s economic system resembles statist monopoly capitalism rather than a true free market.

Thus, a hard question arises. Why is Buthelezi’s professed belief in multiparty democracy, human rights, nonviolence and the free market so at odds with the actual practices of his Kwazulu administration and his Inkatha Freedom Party?