eight days in september the removal of thabo mbeki pdf

Mbeki could have fought his recall by the ANC. He listed a number of problems the ANC still needed to overcome, and those problems are still around and are, if anything, far worse today than they were then. And he went to great pains to point out that although the personality of Nelson Mandela had been built up to the cult-like status it was, the decision to do that had been a strategic one by the ANC itself, and was not Mandela’s desire. He listed a long pantheon of ANC heroes and heroines of the struggle he had interacted with, and for whom he had the greatest respect. He then launched into a long and, at the time, controversial series of statements about his concerns that the ANC was building a cult of personality around Zuma. “I decided to write this letter after I was informed that, two days ago, on October 7, the president of the ANC Youth League and you the following day, October 8, told the country, through the media, that you would require me to campaign for the ANC during the 2009 election campaign.”Īfter expressing his surprise at this, Mbeki wrote that he “could not understand how the same ANC which was so disenchanted with me could, within a fortnight, consider me such a dependable cadre as could be relied upon to promote the political fortunes of the very same movement, the ANC, which I had betrayed in such a grave and grevious manner as to require that I should be removed from the presidency of the Republic a mere six or seven months before the end of our term”. He explained right at the start of his letter, addressed to Zuma, that he was writing specifically because he “was informed” about how he would be “required” to campaign. Here’s what Mbeki told these guys eight years ago already. One ANC branch even released a statement to say “It is mischievous to suggest that Comrade Mbeki is not keen to campaign for the ANC.” Mischievous, hey? Pathetic. The party was honestly trying to get us to believe that Mbeki would have canvassed for his party, if only he weren’t so caught up in his peace work in Africa. I recall we even ran an article with the headline Mbeki supports us, he’s just … quite busy – ANC. He made that bluntly clear in 2008 already, so much so that one would think he would never have been asked to do it again.īut yet, even ahead of this year’s local government elections, whether Mbeki would canvass for the ANC was making the front pages of newspapers. Because obviously Mbeki will do no such thing as long as Jacob Zuma is in charge of the ANC. Every time an election comes around, the speculation around whether Mbeki will hit the streets for the ANC begins anew – and it’s pretty pathetic each time.

Eight days in september the removal of thabo mbeki pdf