Former president Nelson Mandela confirmed reports on Tuesday that he would try to persuade United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa to join President Thabo Mbeki’s government.
Mandela, answering questions after being given the Duma Nokwe human rights award at his offices in Johannesburg, said he thought it was important for President Mbeki to surround himself with strong leaders like Holomisa.
”Mr Holomisa is doing very good things for his people and he is a very good leader,” Mandela said.
”I think it is important for President Mbeki to surround himself with people like Mr Holomisa and it is this spirit that I will hold a meeting with him on Thursday.”
Mandela said the ANC’s national chairman and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and the late Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete had also approached Holomisa to try persuade him to rejoin the ANC.
Holomisa was expelled from the ANC about two and a half years before the 1999 elections, after he publicly questioned the former Transkei leader and then public enterprises minister Stella Sigcau — now Public Works Minister — before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
He subsequently formed the UDM with Roelf Meyer, a former National Party cabinet minister in September 1997. Meyer has since left the UDM.
A report in Sunday’s the City Press newspaper reported that Mandela would meet Holomisa after growing concern that the ANC could lose the Eastern Cape, as the province continued to slide into total chaos, as well as a lack of delivery.
”Holomisa and his party are said to be gaining ground in the Eastern Cape,” the report said.
The newspaper quoted Holomisa, who is yet to publicly comment on the meeting with Mandela, as having said he was still ”comfortable with the UDM as he continues to watch it grow each year”.
”I do not think I would reconsider my position within the UDM and allow it to be disbanded,” he said. – Sapa