Lionel Mtshali

Lionel Percival Hercules Mbeki Mtshali (7 November 1935 – 13 December 2015) was a South African politician who was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 to 2004. He was known for unilaterally ordering the expansion of the province's antiretrovirals programme during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in defiance of the policy of the national government under President Thabo Mbeki. A founding member and former chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mtshali was also national Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in the government of President Nelson Mandela from 1996 to 1999.

Early life and career Lionel Percival Hercules Mtshali was born on 7 November 1935 in Vryheid, Zululand and grew up in the region that became the KwaZulu-Natal province. During apartheid, his family was forcibly removed from the farm where they had lived. teacher and school principal. He became a school inspector and was appointed Chief Inspector in the KwaZulu homeland's Department of Education in 1984; he was later appointed Minister of Education and Culture in the KwaZulu government.

Mtshali was also national chairman of the IFP between 1997 and 2004.

Provincial government

Tensions in the coalition Mtshali was sworn in as Premier of KwaZulu-Natal on 10 February 1999,

According to the Sunday Times, Mtshali's personal demeanour was "gruff, taciturn and unapproachable" and his leadership style "autocratic and imperial". In 2002, Mtshali unilaterally fired two ANC Members of the Executive Council, earning the ire of his coalition partner. He also decided unilaterally that all business of the KwaZulu-Natal government would be conducted in Ulundi, an IFP stronghold; the decision met strong resistance from the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA). There were also media reports about the extreme expense to taxpayers of Mtshali's commute from Durban to Ulundi. This put him on the opposite side to Mbeki and to his own provincial health minister, Zweli Mkhize of Mbeki's ANC, both of whom opposed the lawsuit.

According to Mtshali, in October 2001 he approached Mkhize and asked him to expand the province's nevirapine programme, but Mkhize said that doing so would be at odds with the national government's current policy.

Leader of the opposition He remained in office as Premier until 23 April 2004, Thereafter he became leader of the official opposition (the IFP) in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature. Under his leadership, the IFP, with the DA, boycotted a sitting of the legislature in October 2007 following a physical altercation with the ANC in an earlier plenary session.

Death Mtshali died on 13 December 2015 at the age of 80. He died at Westville Hospital in Durban after a short illness related to a heart condition. President Jacob Zuma declared that Mtshali's funeral on 19 December would be a special Provincial Official Funeral; the national flag was flown at half-mast across KwaZulu-Natal.

Personal life Mtshali was survived by his wife, Daphne, and four children. In 2002, he said he was invested in the government's HIV/AIDS policy partly because two daughters of his daughter-in-law had died of the disease since 1998.