Pretoria | Wednesday
PLANS of a plot to oust South African President Thabo Mbeki proved to be untrue, the country’s safety and security minister said on Tuesday, in an about-face since the allegations surfaced in April.
Steve Tshwete, who publicly accused three senior African National Congress members of plotting to oust Mbeki, told journalists that he had made a mistake and apologised to them and their families.
“I am convinced after receiving the report that indeed the investigations were thorough and am happy to indicate that the names of these comrades have been cleared,” he was quoted as saying on SABC public radio.
“It is regrettable that their names have been made public in the first instance and I must upfront extend my profound apologies to them and their families.”
Tshwete stirred a hornet’s nest earlier this year when he named three senior party members, Cyril Ramaphosa, a former ANC secretary general, and former provincial premiers Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa in an alleged plot to overthrow Mbeki.
At the time the men denied the claims.
Phosa on Tuesday welcomed Tshwete’s approach to the matter.
“It is very positive. It will contribute to a constructive environment,” he told the South African news agency Sapa.
“Let’s now leave the matter where it is.”
Ramaphosa said he was pleased that the allegations against him had been found to be untrue.
“He unconditionally accepts Minister Tshwete’s apology and is pleased that the matter can now finally be put to rest,” he said through his office.
Sexwale could not immediately be reached for comment.
The row, which has threatened to destabilise the ruling coalition, goes back to April 24, when Mbeki said he was being plotted against and Tshwete named as among those under suspicion the three men who retain great popularity within the party.
Mbeki justified a probe to into the matter after allegations surfaced that he had masterminded the political murder of former South African Communist Party secretary-general Chris Hani, who was shot dead at his home in April 1993.
But even Mbeki said he believed Tshwete should not have mentioned the three names.
“Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned the names,” he told Britain’s Channel Four television during an interview shortly after Tshwete’s announcement.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the controversial former wife of Nelson Mandela who has had a frosty relationship with Mbeki, also blasted Tshwete at the time.
She condemned “in the strongest possible terms the highly irresponsible decision to publicly link the names of three senior members of the movement to completely unsubstantiated and highly improbable allegations”.
Critics and analysts claimed Tshwete abused his powers by ordering a police probe into what were unsubstantiated allegations which came amid normal party political infighting.
They said naming the men was an attempt to undermine potential rivals to Mbeki but the move had backfired on the president and left Ramaphosa, the only one of the three considered capable of challenging him, unscathed.
Although Tshwete admitted his error on Tuesday, he maintained that if allegations were made, it was his duty as minister to investigate.
“If allegations are made against somebody, whether it is a president or an ordinary citizen, and the allegations implicate them in a crime, that is not a matter I can lightly shake off,” he said.
He said a “thorough investigation” revealed that there was no substance to claims that Mbeki was linked to Hani’s assassination.
Tshwete’s statement in April was based on claims by a former ANC regional youth league leader, James Nkambule, who was expelled from the party and is now facing 77 fraud and theft charges after acknowledging having embezzled R2,3-million ($218 000 dollars) in state funds.
On Tuesday, Tshwete said Nkambule could face prosecution. – AFP
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