Former president Thabo Mbeki met with six of the ANC’s top seven national officials at Luthuli House last night following his letter to deputy president Paul Mashatile in March wherein he accused ruling party MPs of shielding the president in the Phala Phala saga.
President Cyril Ramaphosa did not attend the meeting.
While the ANC said it used the meeting as an opportunity to get counsel and wisdom from the former statesman, it is believed Mbeki arrived at it to flesh out his earlier concerns that ANC legislators have used their majority in Parliament to shield the president from accountability over the Phala Phala debacle.
At the time, Mbeki said in his 17-page letter that it was wrong for the MPs to vote against the Section 89 report on the matter, to vote against the Democratic Alliance’s motion for an inquiry into the wrongdoing at Eskom as well as the establishment of an adhoc committee on Phala Phala.
“To be honest to ourselves, as our Comrade President 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 load shedding,” Mbeki wrote.
He said the ANC wanted to protect Ramaphosa at all costs.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told the public broadcaster SABC last night that the agenda of the meeting was fairly straightforward as the former president of the organisation had written to the leadership of the ANC expressing certain concerns and the letter that was addressed to the deputy president was “warmly embraced” by the national officials who committed to opening the door for further engagement with Mbeki.
Bhengu-Motsiri said the meeting would help the organisation continue with the ANC’s renewal project.
On Monday, during the 30th anniversary commemoration of the assassination of former SACP leader Chris Hani, ANC first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane expressed hope that instead of criticism, Mbeki would start giving guidance to Ramaphosa.
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