Former president Thabo Mbeki’s closest allies say his scathing critique of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government being on autopilot was meant to serve as a wake-up call for the country’s political, business and labour leadership to act with urgency in the national interest.
“He is genuinely worried about the state of SA. Ramaphosa seems blind to what everyone else can clearly see,” a former staffer of Mbeki’s private office said.
Business Day spoke to five sources in proximity to Mbeki, when he was head of state and now, and they all agree that Mbeki in no way meant to lend his voice to the chorus of calls for Ramaphosa to step aside amid controversy over the alleged cover-up of the theft of stashed dollars at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.
“It was meant to give the president a swift kick up the butt,” another source said.
Mbeki was urging “all of us to do more to improve the socioeconomic welfare of SA. He was saying that this is the only way to avoid continued social upheaval,” an ANC national executive committee member said.
The ANC has been haemorrhaging support in local, provincial and national polls. Under Ramaphosa in 2021 it registered its most significant losses yet by not securing a majority in the national tally and losing a number of metros in the municipal poll.
Challenge notion
“Ramaphosa does not get called out on the facts. All the data and indicators are showing he is doing badly and he wants us to constantly understand why he is doing badly. This excuse of the ANC is wearing thin. Who better than Mbeki to call it as we all see it?” political analyst Ralph Mathekga said.
While not addressing Mbeki directly, Ramaphosa came out on Sunday night to challenge the notion that there is no progress in creating a social compact to tackle SA’s economic woes.
Speaking at the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial congress in eThekwini, Ramaphosa acknowledged that progress has been “slow” but added that he is working with business and labour to find common ground.
“The current problem of jobs did not start yesterday or two years ago. We have had this problem for a long time. There are differences on what compromises should be made and who should make those compromises but that does not mean there is no progress,” Ramaphosa said.
Mbeki, who was removed from office in 2008 after factional battles within the ANC, had not previously criticised Ramaphosa publicly.
“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.
Arab Spring
Mbeki is among the first high-profile leaders sympathetic to Ramaphosa’s agenda to renew the ANC and put the economy on a robust growth path to publicly cast doubt on the president’s stewardship of society and the economy.
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 the 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.
After a period of state capture, in which 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.
“People want state power 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.”
Update: July 24 2022
This story has been updated with new information.
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