Red Alert
Former President Thabo Mbeki personalises complex political issues, continues to isolate SACP leaders
In his letter – “Dare you ponder the obvious: of course Mbeki is aloof” – Thabo Mbeki sets himself the task to dispel the notion that he was aloof.
He writes: “However, in my specific case, the charge of being ‘aloof’ rested on the assertion that whether intentionally or not, my very style of leadership meant that I deliberately chose to be ‘not in touch with the people’, (and the membership of the ANC), obviously having ‘arrogated to myself the status of being the source of all wisdom.’”
In “Former President Thabo Mbeki still doesn’t get”, published by Umsebenzi Online on 20 January and The New Age on 22 January, SACP First Deputy General Secretary Comrade Jeremy Cronin sufficiently responded to Mbeki, at least for now. The response remains valid in all respects, even to Mbeki’s “Dare you ponder the obvious: of course Mbeki is aloof”, as if the latter was not penned and published thereafter.
In addition, it is important to underline that Mbeki is the first former ANC President to announce – in the very first elections once it was no longer about campaigning for him to hold on to the position – that his vote was a secret. This was the first election after the ANC’s 52nd National Conference held in Polokwane in December 2007 where, as he says, he contested the position of ANC President and did not win.