🔒 RW Johnson: Mbeki’s counterrevolutionary bogeyman returns

In his last speech, Thabo Mbeki delved into the last three decades, dividing them into a period of success and subsequent failure. However, his self-congratulatory tone belies historical inaccuracies, raising questions about his understanding of pre-ANC South African history. Mbeki’s selective memory extends to recent events, conveniently omitting uncomfortable truths. His fixation on an obscure “counterrevolution” lacks substance, casting doubt on his narrative. As Mbeki plans a National Dialogue, one wonders if it will be just another deviation from hard truths.

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By R.W. Johnson

Thabo Mbeki has re-entered the lists with a long speech setting out his interpretation of the last thirty years. ___STEADY_PAYWALL___ Not without reason, he follows the formulation of Dr. John Endres (whom Mbeki persistently misspells as Endress) in dividing the period into a largely satisfactory first thirteen years and a disastrous later seventeen years. However, Mbeki writes to praise himself and much of his story is flawed.

Like most ANC leaders, Mbeki refers to “350 years of cruel colonial and apartheid rule of the white minority.” However, the fact is, of course, that very few Africans in South Africa would have even seen a white person before about 1850. One wonders, in fact, whether anyone in the ANC knows anything about the history of South Africa before, say, 1945. It would be interesting to question ANC leaders. Do you know who Andries Stockenstroom was? Or Juan Molteno? Or Theophilus Shepstone? Or John X. Merriman? Or Luis Botha? They generally have their own, rather skewed, image of The Struggle and extend it backwards, towards a purely imaginary past.

Mbeki seems to think he can take similar liberties even with the very recent past. So, for example, he insists that the PDR was only “slightly recast” after 1994 and was subsequently followed by “programs that complemented and did not replace the PDR, as some have wrongly argued.” Perhaps he could explain why he, Alec Erwin, and Trevor Manuel met secretly for months to craft the GEAR program that effectively replaced the RDP; why the news of this was carefully hidden from Jay Naidoo, the RDP Minister; And why did Naidoo lose his job once GEAR was announced? Or why did all mention of the RDP quickly disappear from public discourse?

Or also, Mbeki tries to convince us that there were no power cuts before 2014. But this, of course, is completely false. One remembers well how the repeated power outages of those years generated a lot of anxiety about how the 2010 Football World Cup could be staged, only for the government to “solve” this problem by canceling all maintenance at Eskom for the duration. There is no mention in Mbeki’s version of Eskom’s warning to Cabinet in 1998 that unless new power stations were built, power outages would occur in 2008. Nor is there any mention of how the Medupi and Kusile specifications were manipulated to ensure that Chancellor House/Hitachi obtained the contract as a clandestine way of funding the ANC, and this in turn is the reason why those power stations have never functioned properly. To be fair, Zuma is also campaigning on the grounds that there were no power cuts during his presidency. What we don’t know is if these senior leaders have Alzheimer’s or if they really believe they can fool us.

Nor does Mbeki mention his shameful support for Nigerian despot Sani Abacha, his similar support for murderer Robert Mugabe, his deliberate attempts to cover up Mugabe’s electoral fraud or even his AIDS denialism, which cost many more black lives than were lost. throughout the apartheid period. Similarly, Mbeki has a lot to say against corruption and those who put their hands in the tills, but he never mentions the scandal that created it all, the arms deal, and how he exerted maximum pressure to stifle any parliamentary inquiry into it. . When newspapers published reports suggesting that Mbeki himself had profited handsomely from the arms deal, he notably did not deny it, let alone file a lawsuit.

However, this is almost true. The main theme of Mbeki’s rant is that almost everything that has gone wrong under the ANC is the work of “the organized counterrevolution”. As was frequently observed under Mbeki’s presidency, he exhibits a well-developed paranoia. Here he simply claims that apartheid-era Military Intelligence created this conspiracy which, apparently, continued to operate year after year during the period of ANC rule – until today. As with all previous imaginings of a Third Force, there are no names, no examples, no dates, and indeed no evidence. However, Mbeki can write that “one of the important decisions taken by the counterrevolution… was to ensure that (the ANC) fails in its task of properly governing our country.” Is that so, one wonders, how does he explain the arms business? Support for Abacha or Mugabe? Your AIDS policy? Their failure to heed Eskom’s warning in 1998? If so, it would appear that Mbeki was a willing accomplice of the counterrevolution. Could he perhaps explain how he found out about this “important decision”? If you had the slightest bit of evidence, you would surely show it?

The curious thing is that the transition negotiations began when Mbeki spoke at length with the apartheid security services. And the leadership of the then NIS was maintained throughout the transition and was used to train the ANC in intelligence skills, something that could only happen with Mbeki’s agreement. Furthermore, the minister in Mandela’s government who most regularly associated with former members of the apartheid security services was Joe Modise – and there are no shortage of people who believe that Modise had been in cahoots with them for a long time. However, Modise was a particularly close associate of Mbeki and the main architect of the arms deal that Mbeki was so determined to cover up.

The curious thing is that Mbeki repeatedly refers to “the counterrevolution,” but there are never names, dates or anything else to dispel the suspicion that all of this is a figment of his paranoid imagination. Thus, he says that the ANC “did a lot to discover and expose those enemy agents (in its ranks), but the harsh reality is that a considerable number remained undiscovered within our ranks.” Why then can’t you name even one of these enemy agents who were discovered and exposed?

But Mbeki is still getting his groove back. He then insists that the counterrevolution “intervened in Polokwane” in 2007, meaning that his own crushing defeat at the hands of Jacob Zuma was actually the work of this fifth column. Again, of course, not even the slightest proof is offered. Let’s leave aside the absurdity of Zuma as an apartheid spy: his relationship with the Russian GRU, quite the opposite, is very evident. So Mbeki lost in Polokwane due to the united opposition of Cosatu, the SACP, the ANCYL and about 60% of the ANC delegates – all of them apparently working for the counter-revolution! In fact, they were actually the counterrevolution. This is so absurd that one is ashamed of Mbeki. It is simply not right for a grown man, much less a former president, to come out with these pampered childish fantasies of self-exculpation and guilt.

But there is nothing to stop him. We later learned that, in short succession, the counter-revolution manipulated the SAPS, the NPA, the Department of Health and quite a few state-owned enterprises. Once again, there is not a shred of evidence. And then – like Ramaphosa, like many other ANC leaders – there is a belated admission that “we made mistakes”. However, this is purely pro forma I admit: these errors are never explained in detail and we are never really told what they are or were. But at this point Mbeki is preparing for the inevitable happy ending. He sadly admits that “there is still a huge gap between rich and poor”; although, of course, he does not explain why inequality has actually increased so sharply under ANC rule. And “we are now raising the intellectual capacity and improving the moral and ethical orientation of our members.” Actually ? Is that why Bongani Bongo, Malusi Gigaba and Supra Mahumapelo are still on the ANC electoral list?

At the end of this nonsense, Mbeki announces that he will soon hold a National Dialogue. No doubt a lot of stupid people will want to join in, although it’s hard to imagine this producing much more than boredom and emptiness. What would be really interesting would be if Mbeki could name some of the leaders of the counterrevolution… and invite them. He lets the dog see the rabbit. At the very least, that would liven up the debate and, God knows, we could all use a laugh.

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