In an unexpected move that caught political commentators on the back foot, President Thabo Mbeki made a surprise visit to South Africa last Wednesday. His unannounced arrival was leaked to Not the Mail & Guardian by a part-time hangar-sweeper at the South African Air Force base at Swartkops, outside Tshwane.
According to the hangar-sweeper, the president was seen descending from his luxury airliner in the early hours but only after the aircraft had been towed into its hangar and the hangar doors had been sealed. The hangar-sweeper, who refused to be named for fear of retribution, said that Mbeki was met by a tall man with a badly fitting suit and wild, grey hair that he kept scratching. The president was hustled into a waiting stretch-limousine that drove quickly away without turning on its headlights. The hangar-sweeper said she had to hide behind some cases of tinned caviar so as not to be seen.
Approaches made to the Presidency by NTM&G had not received any response by the time of going to press.
When last seen before his astonishing return to South Africa, Mbeki had been chairing a special conciliation and arbitration committee set up by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to settle outstanding claims between opposing church flower-arranging factions in Northern Ireland. Prior to that Mbeki is believed to have been in Canada where he had been prime negotiator on behalf of Inuit peoples reclaiming ancient seal-photography and home-video rights in the so-called Tundra and Ice Floe regions north of the polar circle.
It is generally believed that as a result of his persistent and valued contributions to political and social debate in Africa, most especially his highly effective efforts in conflict resolution, Mbeki has become much sought after as an intermediary and mediator in internationally relevant disputes and disagreements. As one United Nations evaluator commented: ‘If you are living in a pretty little suburb and you have problems with your neighbour’s scorning your choice of cat food, Mbeki would be the sort of borough ombudsperson most trusted to set things right by all. Nothing is too small for him.”
Unconfirmed reports tell of Mbeki having been the keynote speaker quite recently at a ‘mediation and intercessionary conference” organised by ‘leading role players” in the continuing whispering campaign between government religious leaders and paci-fist Muslim elements, taking place at various locations in the Indonesian peninsula. Rumours that Mbeki had been invited to Camp David, where he phoned up and gave advice on efficient hurricane control to United States President George Bush, have yet to be confirmed.
Whether Mbeki is still in South Africa is not known. The SABC television news department, which usually keeps tight tabs on the president’s whereabouts, expressed itself ‘puzzled” by his sudden reappearance on South African soil. The last it had heard from their special presidential reporter, Amanda Strydom, was that, in a speech given to the Peruvian Junior Press Club two weeks ago, Mbeki had referred to the encouraging growth taking place in Robert Mugabe’s ‘private bank accounts”.
‘That speech was the lead item in the 7pm SABC3 news broadcast two weeks ago,” said an SABC news department official. ‘Since then, like everyone else, we’ve been living in hope.” —