President Thabo Mbeki has scoffed at his detractors on the left of the tripartite alliance, with an official close to him saying he considers the demands of the alliance summit mere ”noise”.
”These people need lessons on how government is run. You can’t ignore the ANC and government processes and try to hold people ransom with new demands.”
Among the demands of the weekend encounter between the ANC, SACP and Cosatu were the rethinking of inflation targeting, the removal of VAT on more basic foodstuffs and the dropping of the proposed 53% electricity tariff increase.
Saying that ”these people need lessons in how government is run”, the official said Mbeki had followed the ANC protocol to the letter in policy matters. ”The ANC lekgotla came up with priorities which were discussed at the Cabinet lekgotla, which was attended by both government and the ANC. The decisions there were consolidated into the president’s state of the nation address before being adopted by government departments.”
He said some within the ANC seemed in a hurry to get into government. It was Mbeki’s belief that the ANC had to use the government’s record to present to the electorate during the election campaign. ”Where is the wisdom in pulling down a government 10 months before elections?”
The Mail & Guardian understands that in the summit’s closed sessions, Mbeki’s performance — and particularly his handling of the electricity crisis, food and fuel prices, Zimbabwe, rising interest rates and his suspension of prosecutions chief Vusi Pikoli — was robustly criticised.
Although the ANC eventually decided not to support the SACP’s call, key national executive council members, including Tony Yengeni, Tokyo Sexwale and Ngoako Ramatlhodi, spoke in favour of his removal.
It was agreed that although all ANC cadres are subject to recall, Mbeki should stay put for now because his removal would mean an early election, for which the ANC was not prepared.
”We still have a lot to do before we can go to the ballot,” a provincial ANC leader told the M&G.
However, the leader emphasised that the summit decision should not be seen as a vote of confidence in Mbeki. ”We successfully dislodged certain leaders from an anti-ANC path at Polokwane. Now the battle was to dislodge them from government where they continue with their programme that is engulfing government in more of a crisis,” said an SACP central committee member.
The M&G was told that even Cabinet ministers who previously supported him are becoming disillusioned with his indecisive leadership.
Mbeki was accused of dithering since the ANC asked him to include ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe in his Cabinet.
The party’s political committee in Parliament is waiting to hear whether Motlanthe is to be a Cabinet member or an ordinary MP. Caucus spokesperson Khotso Khumalo said Mbeki was ”delaying the process”.