‘Mbeki will not be pushed’

President Thabo Mbeki wants to stay the course as country president despite increased pressure exerted on him by the new ANC leadership.

The Mail & Guardian spoke to four people close to the president. They say Mbeki is willing to listen to the ANC but will not implement any party decision that he thinks is impossible or could undermine the rule of law.

Recent demands by the ANC that the Scorpions be disbanded by June and that ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe be made deputy president of the country are seen as examples of micromanagement of government by the party.

An ANC national executive committee (NEC) member has told the M&G that Mbeki could be asked to add even more people to his Cabinet.

Despite promises by new ANC president Jacob Zuma and his allies that there would be no policy changes and Mbeki’s own pledge that there would be a smooth co-operation between the party and government, the new year has started on an adversarial note.

NEC member Billy Masetlha has said that Mbeki would be removed as president if he did not listen to the ANC.

Mbeki annoyed NEC members when he did not pitch for the party’s first lekgotla this year as well as for the January 8 statement, the day on which the ANC’s political outlook for the year is made known.

It further infuriated the party leadership that Mbeki held a press conference announcing the suspension of police commissioner Jackie Selebi on January 8.

Mbeki and members of his Cabinet attended the extended ANC lekgotla last week where NEC members impressed upon him that the government has to improve its accountability to the party.

Two sources say that Mbeki told the ANC that he was accountable to 48-million South Africans and not just to the ANC. Those close to the president are concerned that the ANC had gone beyond just giving the government a broad outline of priorities for the year, and had undermined its autonomy by giving Mbeki a five-month deadline to incorporate the Scorpions into the South African Police Service.

The party’s insistence on a specific post for Motlanthe had also caused concern. A senior government official loyal to Mbeki says: ‘These people are flexing their muscles, asserting this thing that the ANC is the only centre of power. But soon they will realise that government is much more complex and implementation of decisions is difficult.

‘The task of the ANC should be to give broad guidelines to government. They are making a mistake when they go into the detail of how government should run. That has never happened before.”

This shows inexperience or even childishness on the ANC’s part, the official says.

‘On the Scorpions issue, for example, before you even start processes, you first have to make an assessment of why the Scorpions were created in the first place. Do the factors that necessitated the establishment of the Scorpions no longer exist?

‘President Zuma said that the ANC would not micromanage government but it seems precisely what they want to do.”

He adds: ‘The president wants to finish his term of office but he will not heed deadlines that don’t make sense. They should avoid simplistic interpretation of ANC resolutions and how they should be implemented.”

A senior official at Luthuli House says the president will not budge.

‘He told them last week that he answers to 48-million South Africans. The simple issue here is that it is the ANC which has deployed him to government under a mandate of the ANC and that is what he is implementing. The top six officials of the ANC are sober and they realise that they will not get everything they want. They will have to manage the unreasonable demands of people like Billy Masetlha. But the president will not give up and walk away.”

In accommodating Motlanthe as deputy president, the ANC might have to change the Constitution to allow for two deputy presidents. This was because the president would never agree to fire incumbent Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, says another close Mbeki ally.

‘We did not change the Constitution as the Democratic Alliance had feared in the past. The Constitution should only be changed to advance national interests, not sectarian interests.”

An NEC member, who is close to Zuma, says: ‘Those who want to create another [centre of ] power must be very careful. The ANC is the only centre of power. If Mbeki does not do as we say, we will take strong action. No one is bigger than the ANC.”

Regarding Motlanthe’s deployment in the government, the ANC leader says: ‘We are not asking him to change the Constitution [to] allow for two deputy presidents. We are only asking him to implement ANC decisions. If the Constitution makes it difficult for him to appoint Motlanthe as deputy president, then somebody will have to be fired.”

The new ANC leadership will finalise the discussion regarding the deployment of other ANC leaders in various areas of the government at the next NEC meeting, the ANC leader says. ‘The matter is on the table. We have compiled a list of names of people, who we think can better represent the ANC in government.”