Letters

Your feature "Struggle for the soul of the ANC" by Allister Sparks (The Witness, October 19) interested me greatly. I agree with Sparks but he has forgotten one thing. The present Jacob Zuma fiasco does not necessarily originate from his association with Schabir Shaik or his implication in Armsgate. At the bottom of the problem lies nothing less than corrupt horse trading of the worst kind.

Remember the offer with which President Thabo Mbeki confronted Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi to prevent him taking on the deputy presidency? Without the shabby arrangement to make S'bu Ndebele premier of KwaZulu-Natal in exchange for offering the deputy presidency to Buthelezi, Mbeki would not now be facing this debacle. Buthelezi could possibly have been convinced to become deputy president without the greasy strings attached to the offer. He would certainly have proved a more suitable representative of South Africa.

With acknowledgements to Anita Schattenberg and The Natal Witness.