The empty Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban spoke volumes. A meeting to mark the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s pacifist movement had been successfully hijacked to embarrass President Thabo Mbeki.
When the crowds heard that ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma was not going to address them, they booed and sang Zuma’s anthem, Umshini Wam, in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The incident followed a week in which Mbeki’s former close ally, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, had publicly lambasted him as an autocrat. The week before, Mbeki could not address the Cosatu congress, while the federation laid down the red carpet for his political rival.
This weekend the president will be giving his political overview report to the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting, the first since charges of fraud and corruption against Zuma were withdrawn. However, Zuma himself will not be present, as there has been a death in his family.
Mbeki is expected to respond to the withdrawal of charges against Zuma and to calls for him to reinstate him as South Africa’s deputy president.
While Zuma has privately indicated that he is not too keen to regain his Cabinet position, publicly he has put the pressure on Mbeki, saying it was Mbeki who had the power to fire and hire. ”You are asking the wrong person,” Zuma responded, when asked if he wanted his post back.
In recent weeks Zuma has hogged the limelight, while Mbeki has looked increasingly isolated.
Faced with the juggernaut of Zuma’s political campaign the Presidency is on a charm offensive.
Its meeting with the presidential trade union working group was unusually cordial, with political temperatures cooled by government’s decision to impose quotas on Chinese imports. This was a key victory for labour, which has for many years campaigned for protection in the clothing sector.
There was also ”toenadering” on the World Trade Organisation as well as rapprochement on broader economic policy, though Cosatu will continue its jobs campaign to highlight pandemic joblessness.
The other area in which the charm offensive is clear is that of HIV/Aids policy. Faced with international and domestic castigation, Cabinet has now put Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in charge of unity building.
Tshabalala-Msimang, long a thorn in the side of Cosatu and whose Aids oddities make her an easy target for Zuma’s team, has effectively been sidelined.
It was left to ANC deputy secretary Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele on Thursday to declare that those who call Mbeki an ”absentee father of the party” were wrong.
Mthembi-Mahanyele was responding to callers on SAfm who were saying Mbeki had been silent on the Zuma matter when leadership was needed from him.
The callers were supporting studio guest City Press editor Mathata Tsedu, who called for Mbeki to speak up.
In his political report Mbeki may deal with Zuma supporters’ continued efforts to embarrass and humiliate him. These have included carrying a coffin at Zuma’s last court appearance symbolising Mbeki’s death and the heckling Mlambo-Ngcuka while she was addressing Cosatu delegates at the federation’s congress two weeks ago.
Cosatu delegates also interrupted another Mbeki ally, Sydney Mufamadi, and told him to sit down. They were unhappy with his suggestion that they did not understand the ANC and its role as political leader of the tripartite alliance.
Despite many agreements within the NEC that Zuma and Mbeki should work together, there appears to be little communication. Zuma admitted on TV that Mbeki had not called him after charges were dropped against him.
A senior provincial leader and NEC member said he was disappointed that the 94-year-old movement, with its rich history, found itself hamstrung and directionless over the ”Zuma issue”.
He rejected as ”rubbish” claims that Mbeki was the source of division in the party and criticised Zuma for hiding behind ANC policy when it suited him and publicly criticising the same policy on other occasions.
”That is not what you expect of a disciplined cadre of the ANC.”
Another NEC member said the upcoming NEC meeting was unlikely to be heated and could once again paper over the cracks and project an image of unity.
However, the next meeting, in a month’s time, would deal with the controversial ”hoax e-mail” saga.
The party has set up a task team to investigate the origins and impact of e-mails that implicated senior ANC members in a plot to discredit secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and Zuma.
But a member of Mbeki’s camp said some NEC members might ask the party at the meeting on Friday to pronounce on the behaviour of those who claimed to be Zuma supporters.
Members of the legislature close to Premier S’bu Ndebele have alleged that certain ANC members of the KwaZulu-Natal Cabinet closely associated with Zuma were involved in organising the mob that demanded to be addressed by Zuma at Kingsmead, forcing provincial Community Safety Minister Bheki Cele to calm them down.
Cele is also ANC chairperson in the influential eThekwini region.
The Mail & Guardian understands the crowd arrived in four buses with the express aim of embarrassing Mbeki and his ally, Premier Ndebele.
Claims that the disruption was organised by senior ANC leaders, some in the provincial cabinet, underscore how isolated Ndebele has become.
A member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature said Ndebele had made a grave error in filling his cabinet with people who were believed be loyal to Zuma and Finance Minister Zweli Mkhize. The Zuma loyalists include Mkhize, Cele, Provincial Minister for Local Government Mike Mabuyakhulu, Arts Minister Weziwe Thusi and Health Minister Peggy Nkonyeni.