Former president Thabo Mbeki.
Top-ranking members of the ANC are said to have admitted to being in the dark about the Phala Phala scandal involving President Cyril Ramaphosa during a meeting with former president Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday over a leaked letter he wrote slamming the party.
The meeting was arranged after Mbeki’s scathing 17-page letter to Deputy President Paul Mashatile lambasting the ANC for supporting Ramaphosa in parliament “at all costs” and for shooting down an inquiry into claims the party benefited from corruption at Eskom.
An insider said the meeting with the top ANC officials — minus Ramaphosa — was a cordial and cosy one which focused on the Constitution and the ANC’s leadership in parliament.
The party leader, who declined to be named, said there was no contention during the two-hour discussion with Mbeki, who defended both his letter and his public criticism of the ANC.
They said the six members of the ANC top seven who were present told Mbeki that although they agreed with him that the ruling party needed to show leadership in matters related to the theft of foreign currency at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm, as well as graft at Eskom, it could not vote with the opposition in parliament.
Mbeki told them that they were failing to lead, which resulted in the official opposition Democratic Alliance leveraging on their weakness.
They said Mbeki was in turn told: “The only issue is that the DA brings the motions to want to get rid of the president, that is what the ANC is defending.”
“There was an agreement that, going forward, the ANC must provide leadership on issues of accountability. There was also an agreement that there is no sufficient information on Phala Phala by the president. There was an agreement that the officials should go back to the president and he must give a proper briefing so that the ANC can provide proper leadership on this issue,” the insider added.
They said Mbeki expressed his disappointment at Ramaphosa’s failure to attend the meeting but the party leaders said it was their decision that the president not be present.
“Mbeki was not happy about it but he didn’t push the matter,” they said.
The ANC said in a statement that the meeting was unanimous in its appreciation of the urgency to renew the party, adding that Mbeki underscored his strong support for renewal and unity.
“It is the considered view of the ANC that when all three arms of the state work in step with one another, any matter of national interest gets to be fully ventilated. Following a cordial and robust engagement with our former president, the ANC will continue to draw on the well of wisdom of its elders whenever the need arises,” the party said.
In the leaked letter to Mashatile, Mbeki, who was recalled by the ANC in 2008 as president, equated the protection of Ramaphosa with the party’s defence of then president Jacob Zuma over the Nkandla scandal.
Mbeki said many South Africans suspected corruption in both matters and that history had shown the ANC had taken “wrong positions” in defending Zuma, which had cost the party trust and votes among the electorate.
“It is equally without doubt that any wrong position we take with regard to the Phala Phala matter will also, in equal measure or more, impact negatively on the standing of the ANC with many among the masses of our people,” Mbeki wrote.
He said the ANC should not have blocked the formation of a multi-party committee (MPC) to investigate the Phala Phala matter in parliament and ascertain whether Ramaphosa should be impeached.
“I would presume that, as ANC members, we would assume that our president would not do and has not done anything impeachable. The puzzle is, why then did we stop an MPC being formed? Are we saying that we suspect or know that he has done something impeachable and therefore decided that we must protect our president at all costs by ensuring that no MPC is formed?” Mbeki asked.
This is not the first time Mbeki has raised his concerns over the ANC’s handling of the Phala Phala matter.
Shortly after the death of former deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte in July last year, Mbeki met Mashatile, then the ANC’s treasurer general, and then deputy president David Mabuza on separate occasions, urging the party leaders to get ahead of the scandal engulfing Ramaphosa.
Sources said Mbeki had also called on ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe and Ramaphosa, urging them to do the same.