Johannesburg - The ANC’s top leadership will discuss former president Thabo Mbeki’s scathing letter addressed to the party’s deputy president Paul Mashatile today.
In the letter, Mbeki expressed his disdain for the way that the ANC handled President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala Farm scandal, the Eskom motion and other matters.
“I address this specific letter to you, recalling the position taken by Comrade President Ramaphosa late last year when he requested to be excused from meetings of the ANC NWC and NEC when they discussed the Phala Phala matter. You therefore understand that Phala Phala is one of the matters I will discuss in this communication,” Mbeki said.
He further said: “You will also recall that the Phala Phala matter broke over our heads in June 2022 when Arthur Fraser lodged his complaint against our comrade president with the SAPS.
“Since then, many questions relating to this matter have been posed in the public domain. So far, nine months after the Fraser complaint, none of these questions have been answered!
“The recent report by SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter that no record of the declaration to Customs of the $580 000 that 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”.
The letter has been widely circulated on various social media and the party said this was not meant to be in the public domain.
ANC gecretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the National Executive Committee (NEC) had invited Mbeki to discuss the letter and the matters raised in it.
Mbalula cautioned party members to refrain from discussing the matter.
“We request comrades to refrain from commenting publicly on this matter until the national officials have had the opportunity to discuss it,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula said the ANC found it regrettable that a letter from Mbeki directed at national officials had landed in the public domain through a leak.
“The national officials will discuss the said letter and seek an audience with Mbeki. It is only then that the ANC will consider a commentary on the contents of the letter and its discussions with Mbeki.
“There will be a temptation from some within our ranks to seek to respond to the contents of the letter. We call upon all members, leaders and rank-and-file to exercise restraint and allow national officials and the NEC to engage with the contents of the letter,” Mbalula said.
The ANC’s first deputy secretary-general, Nomvula Mokonyane, also said the letter was not meant to be out in public.
“Officials will reflect on it, as the secretary-general has actually indicated. Once we’ve actually reflected on the content, we will be able to respond to comrade Mbeki,” Mokonyane said.
Mbeki said in the letter that it may alienate members of the public who believe that the party is trying to hide corruption.
“We have actually taken the content into consideration and will not want to enter into a public discourse. When the letter was written to us, we will interact with comrade Mbeki, and we hope that out of that interaction we will be able to shape a way forward, together with him and with him also being part of the membership and leadership of the ANC will assist the ANC,” Mokonyane said.
In an interview with a broadcaster, political analyst Dr Fikile Vilakazi said: “It is a known fact in the public domain that the relationship between former president Mbeki and Ramaphosa is not a good one.
“Mbeki may be coming from a place of deep concern that is shared by a number of other members of the ANC who are in a different slate who are saying whatever is happening, whether we like each other or not, the organisation is falling apart or has fallen apart and we are really kicking with the last leg here towards the fall, let us regroup, let us think differently, you know, even under the leadership (of) Ramaphosa, especially because his leadership is taking a direction that has been challenged by South Africans for so many years, which is really neo-liberal in nature, deepening the relationship with business, which is not a problem in itself, but the kind of relationship that is being deepened, continues not to analyse what kind of a business relationship we are having with the business sector at all? It is unknown,” said Vilakazi.
The Star