By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former president Thabo Mbeki has slammed the ANC for using its majority in parliament to veto the establishment of multiparty committees to probe the forex scandal at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm and corruption at Eskom.
These remarks are found in an explosive 17 page letter that Mbeki sent to ANC vice president Paul Mashatile.
In a letter dated March 29, Mbeki compared the ANC’s actions to it voting against several motions of no confidence against former president Jacob Zuma at the height of state capture.
Mbeki argued that the ANC needed to be truthful with itself. He compared the Phala Phala scandal to the “Nkandla matter,” and questioned why the ANC in Parliament had prevented any inquiry into the scandal.
Former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo found that Ramaphosa had a case to answer regarding the break-in and theft of US$ 580 000 (about R10 million) from his game farm Phala Phala in February 2020.
But the ANC used its majority in Parliament to block an inquiry into the scandal.
I would presume that as ANC members we would assume that our president would not do and has not done anything which Parliament should not investigate in the course of the discharge of its constitutional duties.”
“What message are we communicating to the masses of our people about the values and integrity of the ANC?” he asked.
Mbeki said he had written to Mashatile because Ramaphosa had previously excused himself from discussing the Phala Phala matter in ANC meetings.
He further questioned why the ANC used its majority in Parliament again last week to vote against the formation of an ad hoc committee to investigate the same matter in a motion brought by the DA.
Mbeki said: “It was very wrong that we took a decision to veto the initiation of a parliamentary process specifically focused on investigating the criminal activities at Eskom.
“It will have come across to the public as very strange and disturbing that when a proposal was made that parliament should undertake such a focused investigation into the alleged criminality at Eskom, we promptly voted against an eminently correct proposal.”
Mbeki said the ANC has, inadvertently, conceded more time and space to the criminality at Eskom to continue with its disastrous consequences.
“To be honest to ourselves, as our president [Ramaphosa] insisted, we must expect that the already existing gulf between the ANC and the people widened, as the latter saw the former refuse to investigate the alleged criminality which has resulted in these masses suffering from long periods of very destructive loadshedding.”
He noted further that it was a common cause that over the last two decades the ANC has lost electoral support. The party gained almost 70% support under his presidency in 2004, but 17 years later dropped to less than 50% nationally in the 2021 municipal elections.
In addition, the party’s own polling showed that 55% of ANC supporters no longer believe what the ANC said.
When the masses of our people finally lose confidence in the ANC as their own organisation and dependable servant leader, our movement will perish and therefore cease to exist.”