”Are you all stunned into silence?†ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte asked journalists after a heated exchange between Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille and ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe left journalists uncharacteristically short of questions this week.
The two had just emerged from a meeting at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters, where they discussed the DA’s concerns about the proposed disbanding of the Scorpions.
Instead of presenting the kind of anodyne statement on points of agreement generally read out at joint press conferences, Zille and Mantashe locked horns.
The hostile vibe stood in stark contrast with Zille’s more cordial engagements with President Thabo Mbeki, who was captured on film straightening her collar.
This week a visibly angry Mantashe accused the DA, ‘the recycled National Partyâ€, of sharing with the Scorpions a common hatred for the ANC, saying the unit was full of apartheid security-branch operatives who still saw the ruling party as the enemy.
He said the Scorpions were willing to arrange a plea bargain for anyone who agreed to testify against an ANC leader, citing the deal with Glenn Agliotti for testifying against former ANC national executive committee member Jackie Selebi.
Zille infuriated Mantashe even further by saying she was speaking on behalf of the majority of South Africans, who wanted the Scorpions retained. ‘I don’t think anyone has appointed Zille to speak on behalf of South Africans. If she was supported by the majority, she would be in government,†he said.
Mantashe alleged the Scorpions were inefficient, saying they spent 50 times more resources investigating cases than the SAPS, that it had taken eight years to charge Jacob Zuma and that former Limpopo premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi had not been charged after a six-year probe.
Zille shook her head in vehement disagreement. But she appeared unfazed by the hostility. ‘Politics is not a dinner party,†she told the M&G after the meeting.
Asked whether the tough talk should be interpreted as a sign that the DA would find it even harder to talk to a Zuma-led ANC than it had to talk to Mbeki, Zille said that, on the contrary, regular meetings between the two parties would take place: ‘We are trying to build a democracy here; the opposition has got to talk to the ruling party.â€
She claimed victory after the verbal fisticuffs, saying Mantashe had shown that the ANC’s motives in closing down the Scorpions arose from expediency.
‘The important thing is that the ANC admitted that the reason they want to close down the Scorpions is that they are prosecuting ANC leaders,†she said, ‘that’s just what we’ve been saying.â€