By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former president Thabo Mbeki has spent the day with African National Congress (ANC) leaders in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), leading a political school in the province.
Mbeki’s visit forms part of the party’s programme of renewal and rebuilding, after it recorded a major decline in the May 2024 general elections.
The province was taken by the newly-formed uMkhonto we Sizwe party (MK), led by former ANC leader Jacob Zuma.
Zuma formed the MK Party late in 2023 claiming that the ANC had brought too much suffering to the black people of South Africa — though many of Zuma’s opponents would argue that the country’s population suffered the most under his presidency from 2009 to 2018.
Mbeki took attendees back to his early days in the struggle, sharing how he tried to join the ANC’s defiance campaign at just 10 years old in 1952.
He and his cousin raised money by selling Coca-Cola bottles to pay the two and six pence membership fee, only to be told they were too young. “When we’re young people in the youth league what what everybody was saying was that as the we got a task to contribute to the struggle to end this oppression,” he recalled.
He contrasted that pure focus on liberation with today’s challenges. After 1994, the ANC became the governing party and started attracting “wrong people” interested in self-betterment rather than the movement’s goals.
Mbeki welcomed the honest discussions, where members admitted it’s hard to spot true ANC bases anymore. “I’m very very glad that we we we are being honest about the state of the province… You can’t drop from where we were to this 17% and think that there’s no crisis,” he said.
Mbeki says the crucial question for the ANC is the role it will play in changing the lives of South Africans, not merely strengthening the party or making it look attractive.
He highlighted the upcoming national dialogue as a key tool to address South Africa’s big issues like poverty, unemployment, and crime. Organised by foundations like the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, it aims to bring all South Africans together for the first time since 1994 to exercise self-determination.
“We’ve never done it since 94, this exercise of the right to self-determination by our people hasn’t hasn’t been done,” he explained.
The dialogue will divide the country into 30 constituencies, including women, to ensure inclusive voices. For the women’s group, it means a delegation covering black, white, old, young, rural, and urban women.
“A truly inclusive delegation of women so that this delegation then will come and discuss all of the major issues on the agenda to answer the question what is to be done,” Mbeki said.
Mbeki also expressed his sentiments on KZN Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, saying he had the courage to speak out.
He adds that the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry will help the country understand the state of the criminal justice system, among other things. He adds that the country needs this inquiry.
The Madlanga Commission has heard allegations that private citizens have had access to information from the very top of the security cluster, including on hiring decisions before they have been publicly announced.
Meanwhile the Mbeki Foundation will celebrate 15th Anniversary to honour their journey, its partners, and the enduring spirit of the African Renaissance.