Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2006-01-08 Reporter: Professor Themba Sono

Mbeki Should Recall When Nixon Lost His Memory

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent
Date

2006-01-08

Reporter

 Professor Themba Sono

Web Link

www.sundayindependent.co.za

 

President Thabo Mbeki, the most powerful man in Africa (according to Time magazine), should be well advised to beware the fate that befell the 37th president of the United States, Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon.

Following the June 17 1972 break-in bugging of the Democratic Party National Convention offices in the Watergate complex, Nixon undertook various moves to deflect probes of his involvement, but which only led to strangling his presidential neck.

Subsequent to his December 17 1998 visit to Paris, Mbeki became less than candid in confirming whether or not he met with executives of Thomson-CSF. So, like Watergate was to Nixon, Thomson-CSF might well become Mbeki's Waterloo.

We should recall the question that finally sank Nixon's presidency: "What did the president know? And when did he know it"?

Similarly, we may ask: "What did Mbeki know regarding Thomson-CSF and the arms deal? And when did he know it"? More pertinent is: What conversations did Mbeki have with these Thomson executives regarding South Africa's defence procurement plans? Mbeki may know more than he's letting on. *1

It is often said that history repeats itself. But this is not true, of course. People repeat history, especially by failing to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors or forebears.

In one of Nixon's cover-up attempts, he gave this advice to his aides: "You can say I don't remember. You can say I can't recall, I can't give an answer to that, that I can recall."

Fast forward to December 15 2005 in Cape Town. Mbeki's aides, in Nixonian fashion, inform parliament that "the president does not recall" such a meeting with Thomson-CSF executives Paris in 1998. How could it be, when he has a vast bank of institutional memory?

Even in 1998 he had diarists, itinerary planners, minute-secretaries, personal assistants, protocol officials, intelligence operatives and advisers, many of whom are, and were, privy to his schedules - unless, of course, these meetings were so secret, they were known only to Mbeki himself. The latter scenario is, needless to say, improbable. *2

So even if Mbeki "does not recall" meeting with Thomson executives, any of his coterie of confidants could easily jog his memory. But such jogging is unnecessary because his aides do have the documented details of Mbeki's meetings with a host of Gallic officials *3, including Thomson's executives. What is it that they contain to make Mbeki's aides deny their existence? Or does Mbeki's official diary, like Nixon's Watergates tapes, contain erasures?

When Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, "accidentally" erased 18 minutes of the tapes, we all knew that Nixon's presidency was doomed. Mbeki should avoid prolongation of probing about his connection to Thomson executives, because this may lead to further and more damaging probes.

Mbeki must also remember that someone else may decide to jog his memory *4. Worse still, what, for instance, might Jacob Zuma reveal, since he hints ever so darkly about telling "all" he knows in court? I wonder, too, whether our politically hinged spooks, especially the disgruntled ones, may not decide to sharpen their knives in revenge.


Professor Themba Sono
Interim President, Alliance of Free
Democrats

With acknowledgements to Professor Themba Sono and the Sunday Independent.


*1  Unfortunately for him, the myriad of Thomson-CSF letters and internal memoranda show that Mbeki does know more than he's letting on.

*2  It is not improbable. Because other than secret meetings with Thomson-CSF executives, there were also secret meetings with Jacques Chirac.

*3  See *2.

*4  Someone like a senior counsel in cross-examining under oath, or a judge asking a few clarifying questions of his own.

So much for Mbeki's spokeman, Joel Netshitenzhe's, vain hope that "by midweek the story was as good as dead".

See :
The Fury of a Young Scorned
Joel Netshitenzhe
14 January 2005

http://www.gcis.gov.za/media/ceo/050114.htm
http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles07/drafts_arent.html
http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles07/appear_damned.html