Durban - Former president Thabo Mbeki has torn into the ANC over its moves to oppose several parliamentary votes looking to set up committees to probe the Phala Phala farm scandal currently hanging over ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In a 17-page letter, addressed to ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile and ANC which he led for a decade – 1997 to 2007 – Mbeki did not mince his words when criticising the ANC’s efforts to block the setting up of committees to dig deeper into the Phala Phala scandal.
Mbeki’s opening salvo was a reminder to Ramaphosa on his letter to ANC members in August 2020 in which he said the ANC had been and remained deeply implicated in South Africa’s corruption problem and that although the “ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as accused number one”.
He said the observations by “our Comrade President” were as relevant today as they were three years ago.
He said since former prisons boss Arthur Fraser first laid the complaint over Phala Phala many questions relating to the matter had been posed in the public domain, yet nine months after the Fraser complaint none of these questions had been answered.
“The recent report by SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter that no record of the declaration to Customs has been found of the $580 000 (about R10.5m) Cde President Ramaphosa says was stolen, deepens the puzzle about what exactly happened at Phala Phala farm!
“In this context, consistent with what Comrade President Ramaphosa said in the open letter I have cited, we must be honest with ourselves and understand that many among the masses of our people will entertain the suspicion that the Phala Phala matter includes corruption,” Mbeki wrote.
ANC reaction to Phala Phala similar to reaction to Nkandla
Continuing his assessment of the ruling party’s handling of Phala Phala, Mbeki said it was no different from the Nkandla matter, concerning the price inflation of security upgrades at former president Jacob Zuma’s home in rural Nkandla, “which, once again, many among our people suspected involved corrupt practice!”
“History had made the firm and unequivocal statement that we should never have acted as we did for a long time to support Comrade JZ from doing what he ultimately agreed was the right thing to do, ie to honour the remedial action decided by the public protector.
“Without doubt, the wrong positions we took with regard to the Nkandla matter impacted negatively on the standing of the ANC with many among the masses of our people.
“It is equally without doubt that any wrong position we take with regard to the Phala Phala matter will also, in equal measure or more, impact negatively on the standing of the ANC with many among the masses of our people,” Mbeki said.
ANC opposition to setting up of parliamentary committees to probe Phala Phala
Mbeki questioned the logic behind the ANC’s firm opposition to the formation of the Multi Party Committee to investigate whether Ramaphosa really did have a case to answer as the three-person panel appointed by Parliament concerning the Phala Phala matter had decided that Ramaphosa had a case to answer with regard to a process of impeachment
“What should have followed this is that the National Assembly would have appointed a Multi-Party Committee (MPC) precisely to investigate the matter of whether the Comrade President did indeed have a case to answer!
“To conclude its work, however long this took, the MPC would approach the National Assembly to recommend whether the president should be impeached or not,” Mbeki said.
He questioned why and how the ANC had voted to stop the formation of the MPC, adding that presumably the ANC members had assumed that Ramaphosa would not do and had not done anything impeachable.
“The puzzle is why then did we stop an MPC being formed? Or are we saying that we suspect that he has done something impeachable and therefore decided that we must protect our president at all costs by ensuring that no MPC is formed?” Mbeki questioned.
He added that if this was the manner in which the ANC had voted on December 13, 2022 to block the process of the formation of an MPC (it) had communicated the unequivocal statement to the “masses of the people” that the ANC did not want Parliament to seek and gain a deeper and comprehensive understanding of the Phala Phala matter.
“In other words, we acted as we did because there is something to hide! Without doubt this will have served further to alienate the masses of the people from the ANC, as it will have entrenched the view explained by our Comrade President in 2020, that ‘The ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as accused number one’.”
Mbeki added that any alienation of the ANC from the masses of its people directly served the purposes of the counter-revolution!
“Why are we taking actions which play straight into the hands of the counter-revolutionary forces?” Mbeki said.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE