Publication	Cape Argus
Date	2005-11-26
Reporter	Angela Quintal
Web Link	www.capeargus.co.za

President Thabo Mbeki yesterday broke a public three-month silence as ANC president over the divisions in his party, his own role in the saga and perceived differences with his deputy Jacob Zuma.

Mbeki and other ANC leaders have come under fire from the party's top brass for failing to provide leadership on the matter, and yesterday the president used his online newsletter to do exactly that.

Following a marathon three-day gathering last weekend, the ANC's highest decision-making body - its national executive committee (NEC) - expressed concern that ANC leaders and cadres "generally, have not been sufficiently active in defence of the publicly announced positions of the movement".

Mbeki yesterday decided to set the record straight in his ANC Today letter, after the NEC also expressed concern that the party's positions were being articulated by faceless sources in the media.

"The NEC seriously cautions our members and society at large to depend on official pronouncements of the movement regarding its proceedings and decisions," the statement said.

Mbeki used the same online forum three months ago to call the bluff of those claiming a political conspiracy against Zuma, proposing an internal commission of inquiry into the alleged plot which he was alleged to have master-minded.

Yesterday, with the NEC having roundly rejected a political plot against Zuma, Mbeki attempted to reinforce the official view. This after Cosatu again this week said it believed there was a political conspiracy against Zuma.

Mbeki summarised how, after the announcement that his ANC deputy would be charged for corruption, Zuma had asked that he be allowed to "suspend the discharge of his leadership functions".

While this had been accepted by the party's national working committee (NWC), the NEC held off until a substantive discussion could be held after the conclusion of the party's national general council (NGC) in Pretoria.

However, before this could occur, the NGC felt the ANC should not accept Zuma's request, Mbeki said. Zuma had duly withdrawn his offer to the NEC to withdraw from active party work.

"Unfortunately, since then, the entirely false assertion has been propagated that, during the period immediately preceding the NGC, the NWC and the NEC had taken the initiative to remove the deputy president from his elected positions."

Accordingly, the decision of the NGC had erroneously been interpreted as a defeat of the ANC's elected leadership, Mbeki said.

"This leadership, the NEC, (and the NWC), is alleged to have decided to remove the deputy president from his elected positions, which neither did. The supposed defeat of the NEC by the NGC delegates is then presented as a demonstration of the mass popularity of the deputy president."

Mbeki said the notion that the ANC's rank-and-file was engaged in a mass revolt against the party, including himself, was reinforced by pictures of individuals burning official ANC T-shirts bearing his portrait.

"This happened against the backdrop of demonstrations organised to express support for our deputy president in the context of his court case, as decided both by the NEC and the NGC," Mbeki said.

"In this regard, some members of our movement put forward the demand, 'Zuma for President', which was interpreted as a revolt against a perceived abandonment of the deputy president, and support for the latter, in opposition to the president."

Mbeki was at pains to point out that he was not opposed to Zuma, saying that statements he made to parliament when he announced Zuma's sacking, as well as to the NGC, could "by no stretch of imagination be read as expressing a hostile or malicious attitude towards the deputy president".

Mbeki described the NEC meeting as "open, frank, intense and extensive" and noted that the NEC statement had covered a number of important areas "including the false allegations about differences between the president and the deputy president, the existence of a conspiracy in the movement against the deputy president and the origin of various e-mails".

This week, in his capacity as head of state, Mbeki also chose to counter perceptions that he was abusing state resources for party political ends and that he was involved in some sort of plot.

"I cannot put my personal interests above those of the nation, because if I did, I would be subverting and destroying the very democracy for which so many of our people fought and died," Mbeki told intelligence agents at their 10-year anniversary celebrations.