South African opposition leader Tony Leon has accused President Thabo Mbeki of intellectual “necklacing” against individuals -‒ including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In his weekly internet column on Friday — called South Africa Today — the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader said: “It is difficult to think of a single other democratic nation in which the head of state descends, with such dogged regularity, into public attacks on individual citizens.
“It is a form of intellectual or rhetorical ‘necklacing’. It does not harm its victims physically, but has a similar effect in silencing dissent throughout society.”
Leon said just as Archbishop Tutu once leapt into a crowd in Duduza to stop a necklacing, “he has now stood up to the president’s rhetorical bullying and intimidation”.
Tutu took the president and the government on over a variety of issues recently — in the Nelson Mandela lecture — including black economic empowerment (BEE).
Mbeki said in a wordy response to the archbishop’s charge that BEE had largely benefited an elite: “There are some in our country who regularly communicate the entirely false message that black economic empowerment benefits almost exclusively a small elite composed of members of the African National Congress.”
Mbeki also said: “It is clear that there are some in our country who do not want the truth to be known about what our government and the public sector as a whole are doing to implement broad based BEE.”
Then in the a cryptic statement, the archbishop — who has also been outspoken against African dictators including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — said: “Thank you Mr President for telling me what you think of me; that I am a liar with scant regard for the truth and a charlatan posing with his concern for the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the voiceless.”
Tutu said: “I will continue to pray for you and your government by name daily as I have done and as I did even for the apartheid government. God bless you.”
Leon said on Friday: “For that, South Africa again owes him a great debt of gratitude. The fact is that there are pressing problems facing our country, and we must debate and discuss them properly.”
Likening Mbeki’s statements to Chairman Mao, Leon said: “One of Mao’s favourite tactics was to single out individual dissidents for harsh public condemnation. This frightened people away from expressing their views, even within Mao’s elite inner circle.
“Criticism of Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward, during which tens of millions of people died of starvation, were repressed in this way, allowing the devastation to continue unchecked.
“President Mbeki has adopted a similar practice. The Archbishop was only his most recent target.
“Past victims include journalist and Aids activist Charlene Smith; Anglo-American CEO Tony Trahar; Barloworld chief economist Dr Pieter Haasbroek; Financial Mail journalist Peter Honey; and many others as well.
“None of these people belongs on an ‘enemies list’. They are among the most distinguished citizens of our nation,” Leon argued.
“The president has also singled out individual companies for public denunciation, such as Sasol; individual newspapers, such as the Sunday Times; foreign leaders such as Commonwealth Secretary-General Donald MacKinnon; and international officials such as UNAids deputy executive director Kathleen Cravero,” said Leon. ‒ I-Net Bridge