OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday
A POLICE investigation is underway into claims that President Thabo Mbeki is in “physical danger” from high-profile leaders within the ANC who are plotting to oust him, The Sunday Times reports.
Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete told the newspaper that police intelligence units had since last year been investigating whether the allegations of plots against Mbeki were true and whether the President could be harmed physically to make way for a new leader.
Justifying why the police were investigating ANC members, Tshwete told the newspaper that the “rumours of plots involve not just the president of the ANC but the head of state.”
“As the state department charged with protecting the safety and security of this country, we have to ensure that these plots do not culminate in something ugly. As far back as last year, we picked up clandestine activities involving certain individuals and we are monitoring this on a day-to-day basis to ensure that the President is safe,” said Tshwete.
He declined to name the individuals.
The Sunday Times said that the SA Police Service and National Intelligence Agency are in possession of affidavits from several people who claim they were used as part of a misinformation campaign against Mbeki. In the affidavits, they say that they were told to plant rumours in the media about Mbeki, including stories that he is a womaniser.
The investigation comes as the ANC steps up its campaign to suppress internal dissent and challenges to Mbeki’s leadership, deploying members of the national executive committee and provincial leaders to rein in “maverick” structures.
The moves show that the ANC is taking seriously the possibility of a challenge to Mbeki ahead of the national party conference in December next year, said The Sunday Times.
At a meeting last month, members of the national executive committee discussed alleged “elements” inside and outside the ANC whom they believed were involved in plots to ensure that Mbeki served only one term as President.
The names of prominent ANC leaders who are also businessmen were mentioned as people who were repeatedly named as ringleaders in the plots.
Members of the national working committee also confronted North West Premier Popo Molefe’s provincial executive last month, demanding to know the origin of a pamphlet being circulated in ANC structures calling for “one President, one term”.
ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama said the provincial leadership distanced itself from the pamphlet.
The ANC is tightening the screws in Mpumalanga, where the provincial executive committee is torn in allegiance between two old foes: the former premier, Mathews Phosa, and a former youth league leader, James Nkambule.
Tshwete, a close ally of Mbeki and one of the ANC’s main troubleshooters, is heading up a tribunal investigating, among other things, allegations by Nkambule that the Phosa faction has teamed up with Deputy President Jacob Zuma and senior business leaders against Mbeki.
Tshwete said evidence gathered during the investigation would be “very damaging” to some ANC leaders. “If people want to be President, that’s fine. There are ANC structures . . . where they can canvass properly. They must not do things in a sinister and clandestine way. If they feel the President should serve only one term, it needs to be discussed in the appropriate forums. They won’t get to be President by destabilising the organisation through this mischief-making course.”
Ngonyama said there were individuals who were “ambitious and power-hungry” and who were feeding negative media and public perceptions about Mbeki. “The ANC has never professed to be an organisation of angels, and there are ambitious people out there, particularly those who are bitter about their deployment. It is, however, difficult to trace them at NEC level because at meetings there is absolute unanimity and support for the President’s leadership.”