Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2006-07-30 Reporter: Moipone Malefane Reporter:

Zuma Crisis Has Crippled Us, says Mbeki

 

Publication 

Sunday Times

Date

2006-07-30

Reporter

 Moipone Malefane

Web Link

www.sundaytimes.co.za

 

President gives ANC top brass a stern tongue-lashing for getting lost in party infighting and neglecting the country

President Thabo Mbeki told ANC leaders privately that the Jacob Zuma saga had plunged the movement into a crisis unprecedented in its history and demanded they stop fighting for power and put the people first.

In a blistering political overview presented to the ANC’s National Executive Committee last weekend, Mbeki said party leaders had been consumed by internal differences and had turned their backs on the voters.

In the strongest utterances yet on the Zuma saga, Mbeki:

•Said the crisis plaguing the ANC was the worst in the party’s history;

•Decried the fact that one individual’s issue had caused such acrimony;

•Denied conspiring against Zuma, whom he fired as the country’s deputy president a year ago;

•Accused party leaders of engaging in “destructive infighting” instead of delivering services to the masses; and

•Warned leaders to desist from pursuing “selfish agendas”.

Mbeki said his remarks should be seen as a reflection of reality and not an attack on his party deputy.

Party insiders said NEC members had listened in stunned silence before applauding Mbeki. They said a “stony-faced” Zuma listened as Mbeki outlined the party’s problems but did not comment on Mbeki’s analysis.

ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said NEC members had thanked Mbeki for “refocusing” them on the real issues confronting the country.

Others said Mbeki had been selective and that he should also have tackled broader problems in the ANC.

Mbeki told the meeting: “We made a commitment to the people to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of state machinery... The fact of the matter is that we are far from achieving our goals in this regard.

“This National Executive Committee was not elected ... to mandate us to engage in meaningless and destructive fights for leadership in the ANC and government. The NEC was elected ... to serve the people of South Africa and not to give anyone among us the possibility to pursue selfish agendas, targeting personal elevation and reward,” he said.

Mbeki said the ANC and its leaders retained the confidence of supporters “despite everything we have done ourselves to undermine that confidence”.

“During the last two years, since the 2004 general elections at least, the most contentious political challenges that have faced our movement have revolved around issues relating to our deputy president, Comrade Jacob Zuma.

“I would like to hazard the guess that this is the first time in the 94-year history of our movement that we have lived through a two-year or longer ‘crisis’ that has revolved around matters relating to an individual member and official of our movement,” Mbeki said.

He said he was not aware of any division between himself and Zuma.

“Certainly, I know that any such differences, again if there are any, have not originated from any action by the president intended to marginalise, disadvantage or in any way harm our deputy president,” he said.

Mbeki said neither the internal division in the Western Cape ANC nor the riots linked to cross-boundary municipalities had produced “the same degree of acrimony as emerged around various issues relating to our deputy president”.

Mbeki also took a swipe at the “grave accusations” made in a recent South African Communist Party document that suggests that the open division over Zuma at last year’s ANC National General Council was a manifestation of a general crisis affecting the party. He said he intended to respond formally.

“However, the central point I would like to make in this political overview is that our movement has been elected by the masses of our people to govern our country, on the basis of a specific and detailed mandate,” he said.

Mbeki gave a list of challenges facing the country that ANC leaders should be working on. They included jobs, water, education, municipal services, crime and corruption *1

“The NEC has the principal responsibility to ensure that its own members, first of all and in particular, and our members in general unequivocally and decisively act every day to oblige the whole of our movement to honour the popular mandate given to us by the masses of our people.

“Centrally, we must implement the undertakings we made to the people, holding ourselves accountable to these noble masses,” Mbeki said.

“These masses certainly do not expect that we would be so consumed and imprisoned by supposed internal differences and conflicts that we would effectively, and in reality, turn our backs on the task to implement the commitments we were popularly mandated to promote,” he added.

The Sunday Times reported recently that bitter divisions within the party have crippled ANC branches.

“If we were to ask ANC regions and branches about the programme of their municipalities ... I wonder how many would be able to give a clear answer ...

“Without the reinvigoration and activation of our branch and regional structures, it will be impossible for us to achieve our urgent revolutionary task ­ which is to unite the entirety of our movement,” said Mbeki.

With acknowledgements to Moipone Malefane and Sunday Times.


*1       If he eliminated crime and corruption, then providing jobs, water, education, municipal services, as well as healthcare  and housing would be so much easier.