Thabo Mbeki meets monthly with a council of advisers. Marion Edmunds names the members of this exclusive group
DEPUTY PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has set up a secretive, 24-strong think-tank called the Consultative Council to give him political advice.
All members of the group — which appears to have no constitutional or administrative status despite its title — are black. There are two women.
Two Cabinet ministers are on the council — Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi and Defence Minister Joe Modise — as well as Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad.
Other members of the group include Cosatu general secretary Sam Shilowa, City Press editor Khulu Sibiya, Kagiso Trust chief executive officer Eric Molobi and National Olympic Committee of South Africa president Sam Ramsamy.
The council meets monthly at Mbeki’s official residence in Pretoria. The deputy president’s parliamentary counsellor, Dr Essop Pahad, appears to act as convener.
The two female members are Ann Letsebe, a lecturer at the Department of Social Work at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Durban-based human rights lawyer Linda Zama.
Five businessmen on the council are involved in African Renaissance Holdings, a broad-based investment syndicate. The chief executive of African Renaissance Holdings Bobby Makwetla is part of the group as well as a number of its directors — Advocate “MacCaps” Motimele, Gabriel Mokgoko, Vincent Msibi, a Mmabatho-based doctor, and Seth Phalatse, who is manager of corporate planning at BMW.
Essop Pahad reluctantly confirmed the existence of the Consultative Council this week. “It’s a forum that he calls from time to time. It’s meant to meet monthly, but it does not always happen. The people in the group were selected because it was thought that they might be able to offer the deputy president useful advice,” Pahad said.
“It is a set number of people and I don’t think that they should speak to you about it,” he added. Most council members said they could not talk to the media about their membership, or the nature of the council’s discussions, referring the M&G to Essop Pahad.
Mufamadi denied the council was a kitchen cabinet, or that it was an exclusive sounding board, or club: “I would imagine that a person who was involved in policy-making processes would avoid insulating himself from people who are involved in activities affecting those processes,” he said.
“The deputy president felt the need to be in dynamic contact with as many people as possible who are either involved in the ANC, but at the ground level, or who are involved with the community in various formations.”
Another member of the council, Windsor Shuenyane, managing director of South African Breweries Centenary Centre in Newtown, Johannesburg, said the council was a way for the deputy president to hear the voice of South Africa’s many constituencies.
“The deputy president wanted to be involved at ground level and hear the concerns of every constituency. All major constituencies are represented in this group,” Shuenyane said.
“There is a general consensus that it is a confidential task group. We are just meeting and, for example, when the press goes hard at the deputy president we may talk about it and discuss what might be the cause. There is a member of the press there — City Press editor Khulu Sibiya — and he will contribute for the press, say how the press is thinking … yes, there is quite a lot of discussion about the press,” he said.
The City Press editor would not comment on his position in the group.
The chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, said the council was in line with emerging black business and community interests. He said he concentrated on discussions on development and black economic empowerment which were his particular interests.
A striking aspect of the council is the absence from its ranks of some of the most influential members of the new black business community — people like Nthatho Motlana, chairman of New African Investments Ltd, the Kunene brothers of Kunene Investments, Vusi Khanyile of Thebe Investments, veteran businessman Richard Maponya and Mohali Mahanyele, head of National Sorghum Breweries.
Other members of Mbeki’s Consultative Council are: Professor Ephraim Mokgokong, rector of the Medical University of Southern Africa, Medunsa; Dr Vincent Maphai, director of the Department of Social Dynamics at the Human Sciences Research Council; M Maisela, marketing manager of Multi-Choice South Africa; Umtata-based T Boltina; ANC MP Dr Wally Serote; Professor P Zulu and general secretary of the South African Communist Party, Charles Ngakula.
ANC spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the organisation’s other senior leaders had not been involved in the selection of the group. “We have confidence in the deputy president and we believe that he has established a consultative forum in the best interests of the country so he can explore its richness beyond the government and the alliance.”
An ANC MP, who did not wish to be named, said there would be some surprise in the party at the composition of the council. “It’s not my dream team. There will be members of the ANC who won’t be enamoured of this list,” he said.
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