Former president Thabo Mbeki launched a scathing attack on Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, saying the president’s failure to keep his promises to tackle unemployment, inequality and poverty heightened the risks of social unrest comparable to the Arab Spring uprisings.
“There is no national plan to address these challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. It doesn’t exist. I’m saying to serve the people, it requires that,” Mbeki said at the memorial service of ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte in Johannesburg on Thursday.
“Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa when he delivered his state of nation address in February ... said in 100 days there must be an agreed social compact to address these matters. Nothing has happened. Nothing.”
Mbeki is among the first high-profile leaders sympathetic to Ramaphosa’s agenda to renew the ANC by cracking down on corruption and putting the economy on a robust growth path to publicly cast doubt on the president’s stewardship of society and the economy.
The agenda of Ramaphosa, whose presidency has been rocked by allegations of money laundering and kidnapping related to a confirmed robbery of millions of US dollars at his Phala Phala farm, has been failing to gain momentum, with the unemployment rate notching up unwanted records almost every quarter since he took to the helm in 2018.
Mockery
Mbeki said the government’s failure to tackle these challenges not only makes a mockery of the ANC’s renewal agenda, but also puts SA on the edge of unrest similar to an Arab spring.
“There was a street vendor who got abused by the police and that got the country angry and it only needed that thing, that little spark. You can’t have so many people unemployed and poor,” Mbeki told mourners, referring to the events that triggered a nationwide revolt that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and sparked a wave of revolt in Arab countries in 2011 as people rose up to demand democracy.
“I’m saying one of my fears is that one of these days, it’s going to happen to us,” Mbeki said.
Following a period of state capture, where government coffers were looted at the expense of state-owned enterprises under former president Jacob Zuma, Mbeki came out in support of Ramaphosa’s bid to lead the ANC in 2017.
Mbeki questioned how genuine Ramaphosa has been about the ANC’s renewal agenda, saying party factionalism should have been tackled head on.
“People want state power in order to accumulate wealth for themselves. Rid the movement of these people,” Mbeki said. “ANC people one after the other are called corrupt. One of these days it is going to explode.”
A year ago, SA was on a knife-edge when the arrest of Zuma triggered protests and looting in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, which morphed into an outpouring of general anger over unemployment, hardship and inequality.
He, however, reiterated his confidence in the ANC as the leader of society, saying there is hope for the governing party, despite the loss of electoral support in recent polls. “Most ANC members are not corrupt and are concerned about the state of the ANC. Let’s do all these things that would mean a better life for the people,” Mbeki said.
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