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President Thabo Mbeki was ultimately his own worst enemy. These are the five cardinal errors which led to his downfall in the opinion of RAY HARTLEY
1. THE CONTINUATION OF LIBERATION POLITICS IN AN OPEN, DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY
Mbeki, who spent decades in the smoke-filled rooms of exile politics where everything was done on a “need-to-know” basis and where democracy was often sublimated to the security needs of the movement, failed to adapt to the new politics required of the open, democratic political environment in post-1994 South Africa. Ironically, Nelson Mandela, who spent decades in prison, was much more adept. After an unsteady start, he quickly understood that politics in a democracy requires leaders to step into the world that their supporters occupy. By donning his trademark shirt and offering an open, ready wit to world leaders and school children alike, Mandela won the battle of public opinion. Mbeki, on the other hand, was mistrustful of the media, saw agendas where the were none. Instead of engaging with the cameras, he retreated to a weekly Internet column which hurt his image badly. It gave the world insight into his paranoid thinking, pettiness and rancour. He would frequently single out influential individuals for ridicule. This sort of ad-hominem humiliation of an opponent might have gone down a treat in Lusaka, but it didn’t play in an open society looking for post-Mandela leadership.
2. THE APPOINTMENT OF POOR QUALITY ADVISERS
Mbeki went on to surround himself with advisers who fed his political weaknesses instead of ameliorating them. Chief among these was Essop Pahad, an old friend from exile who was made Minister in the presidency. If Mbeki misunderstood the media and how to build a successful public image, Pahad actively sought to alienate public opinion. He harangued journalists, sometimes with foul language, pointed his fingers at them and even famously sought to “bring down” the Sunday Times by withdrawing government advertising. Then there was Frank Chikane, director general in the President’s office. Although an effective administrator, he was unable or unwilling to bring light to bear on the presidency. Mbeki’s powerful legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi came from the radical Azapo party, a left wing organisation which was implacably opposed to racial reconciliation. Mbeki’s austere, opinionated and nit-picking spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, was not a persuasive salesman. Surrounded by yes-men who fed his weakness for conspiracy, Mbeki was a closed book to the nation. Stoic, wooden appearances on SABC television did not repair the damage.
3. MAKING MORTAL ENEMIES OF BIG POWER BROKERS IN THE ANC
It is inevitable that a political leader will make political enemies on his way to the top. Once there, he ought to work hard to bring them into the fold and to offer them a piece of the leadership sunshine. Not so with Mbeki. Once in office, he set about systematically alienating some very powerful figures in the ANC. Cyril Ramaphosa, who could have been offered a senior position, perhaps deputy president, foreign minister, or finance minister, was cut out of the Mbeki power circle. He left politics to build a massive business empire. He remained extremely popular in the ANC, and retained trade union connections from his days as secretary general of the National Union of Mineworkers. Then there was Matthews Phosa, the unsuccessful premier of Mpumalanga, who was iced out of politics. He went on to spend his waking hours – perhaps even his sleeping hours – dreaming of Mbeki’s downfall. Also thrown out into the cold was Tokyo Sexwale, the powerful and extremely popular premier of Gauteng. Then there was Zuma himself. Even prior to the corruption charges which led Mbeki to fire him as deputy president, Mbeki alienated Zuma who was forced to make a cringeworthy public pledge of loyalty. Ramaphosa, Phosa and Sexwale were bizarrely accused of plotting his downfall and an official police investigation was instituted into their behavour. This was a moment of political madness which set the ANC hierarchy against Mbeki. Mbeki failed to find a way of keeping left-leaning leaders such as Cosatu’s Zwelinzima Vavi and the SACP’s Blade Nzimande inside the establishment tent.
4. BAD CABINET APPOINTMENTS
Mbeki’s Cabinet appointments appeared to based on political loyalty rather than competence. While Finance Minister Trevor Manuel stands out as a successful appointment this was perhaps because he was allowed to forge a strong direction based on powerful technical advice. Perhaps he posed no political threat as the ANC has made it clear it will only countenance an African candidate for the presidency. Mbeki’s worst appointment was the selection of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as Health Minister. She drove a deep wedge between government and those working in NGOs to fight Aids with an obstinate refusal to roll-out anti-retroviral drugs, even when ordered to do so by the courts. When government finally came around to dealing with this issue, Mbeki was a figure of derision and was even described as genocidal. Mbeki’s healthy contrarianism had morphed into unhealthy skepticism and his public image suffered. Then there was the decision place the statist Alec Erwin in charge of public utilities badly in need of reform and private sector investment. Instead of bringing market efficiencies to bear in keeping with Manuel’s policy approach, Erwin rolled back the clock, stopped privatisation and empowered inefficient bureaucracies. The result was that Eskom was hopelessly unable to respond to growing demand for electricity powered by South Africa’s higher-than-expected rate of economic growth. Electricity blackouts harmed growth and severely damaged South Africa as an investment destination. Erwin’s response was to threaten greater state involvement in the economy, to hike the cost of electricity and to deny anything was wrong. Mbeki, who had shown a great deal of Machiavellian guile in dispatching his political enemies now seemed strangely incapable of acting against his errant ministers.
5. AN OVER-EMPHASIS ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Mbeki spent his final years in office totally absorbed by the Zimbabwean crisis, even as his enemies grew bolder and began to plot his early exit from office. Make no mistake, Mbeki’s achievement in getting Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to the negotiation table was a momentous achievement. But it is by no means certain that the deal will stick. And, in order to bring Mugabe to the table, Mbeki had to sacrifice a big part of his credibility. Time after time, he was pictured holding hands with Mugabe, bedecked in garlands of matching flowers and grinning uncomfortably. Even as the deal was signed, Mugabe delivered a rambling testimony to Mbeki’s statesmanship. It was not the sort of ringing endorsement anyone would want. Mbeki was distracted by Zimbabwe at the expense of his domestic political agenda and this may have contributed to his failure to manage crises around electricity and crime which were uppermost in the minds of his citizens.
See also:
Let’s go back to the day Mbeki fired Zuma
Mbeki’s affidavit to the Constitutional Court: Full text
What kind of president will Kgalema Motlanthe be?
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What a great president indeed. It has been a very sad weekend for me to see the man i have loved and admired go the way he did. I would like to thank him for what he has done for this country and his great leadership skills. We will remember his as an economic and philosophical president, who challenged and lectured us in many issues. Of all of them liked this paragraph of the ‘I AM AFRICAN SPEECH, I quote” Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say – nothing can stop us now!. He is far of a better man that the one who have called his from the high office. Surely leading and driving the New SA was a great challenge and he has laid a good foundation. Even in his last day in office, he still demonstrated the high level of political maturity and integrity. This is my president. The Chief. As he is called by his comrades. I hope those who worked with him will continue with what he has started in making a better future for his people. I was born in the struggle; he says. Many people criticize his so much about his aloofness and all that. It is who is and you cannot expect his to jump around and sing “Mshiniwame”. He is not like that. He is my president. One of the greatest leaders on earth.
MAKING MORTAL ENEMIES OF BIG POWER BROKERS IN THE ANC
-> Yes you don’t make enemies with the deputy president. And then try to discredit him. He wields too much influence.
It is sad that Mbeki has had to go. Obviously his first term was better than his second. What is scary is that we are replacing a poor performing thinking president to a gun toting, HIV risk taking womaniser macho president. No president in the world has satisfied everybody, but we are slowly moving to anarchy as far as I am concerned. I am a Zulu and I am ashamed to share tribal roots with such a man.
SA has gone to the dogs. imagine a cabinet with the likes of vavi, malema and blade. imagine vavi as the minister of trade and industry, malema as the minster responsible for justice and blade as the minister of finance. these guys r going to scare away investors with their boss jz as the helm.
how observant of you,but I must say I didn’t expect any less.The biggest problem we have in SA is narrow minded white people like you who write such nonsense only to fuel the irrational fears that white people already have.I will ask you one question, What have you done to create change in your beloved Vaderland.You complain of president Mbeki’s leadership and conveniently forget the significant gains SA has made under this mans leadership.when last have you writen a positive piece on him.You even stoop as low as belittling the signifcant gains made in Zim and other African countries.Let me give it to you straight,you are in the minority in this country and the decisions that are made are not necessarily meant to suite you.Let Africans fix their own problems.The piece you have written is more than infurating,hence I call it unsubstantiated nonsense.An opinion piece from what is essentailly a Europian with no or very little understanding of the African way of doing things.the most important thing tous African’s is respect. Your piece is littered with utterences of disrespect.If you are not willing to tow The African Line,return to your beloved Europe and leave us and our leadership alone. This is our home and instead of living our lives complainig about it we choose to make it work.
Outspoken.
You are entitled to your opinion and take on the article. Much of what you say might be the truth but resorting to attacking the other person rather than his argument makes you and your case appear weak.
You have to learn how to be tolerant otherwise you are no better than the racist ******** who oppressed us for generations.
Sometimes, my brother, you can learn more by listening to others than trying to force your views on others.
A fantastic, incisive, thoughtful piece, Ray – congratulations on this summing-up of his term of office. You have condensed and crystallised all the whiffle-whaffle of the past few years into just a few succinct readable paragraphs.
Personally, I am aghast and infuriated that he has been booted out of his post. Even though I’ve loathed and despised some of his policies over the years, and even wanted to throttle him at times, I still don’t think he deserves to be kicked in the pants in such a disrespectful – and nakedly opportunistic – way.
@Outspoken: your race card is looking rather tattered and stained. How about you read Ray’s piece from beginning to end, with an open mind?
I do fully agree with the above five points but now the most important thing is how to go forward and make sure tomorrow comes. Now that Manuel has resigned who is the suitable candidate…Is it a highly learned Black South African or White one or just a high flying ANC stalwart…someone will have to come up with a good decision here or the economy will be down the drain before everyone knows
Kreyhound,
We now know that Manuel is prepared to stay on. More importantly for me is who are we going to replace the negligently incompetent Alec Erwin with.
Unlike the rest of Africa, shortage of taxpayers’ funds is not the problem. How to spend it wisely and without it being siphoned off to family and friends remains the bigger problem.
We need competent project managers who can work within clearly defined rules of governance to deliver the badly needed services to the poorest of the poor.
Sadly, I have to admit that after 14 years, the government that I helped put into power have shown that their appointees just do not have the competencies to deliver. The time has come to move the whole country forward. And if it means appointing project managers of all the colours of the rainbow nation to achieve this, then that is what we need to do.
Project Managers should be appointed for two years and if they do not perform they should be fired. Those who perform well should have their contracts renewed for a second two year period.
In this way, we do not get into situations where “demographically challenged” citizens occupy seats in perpetuity – unless of course they deliver. Like that so-called coloured chap, Trevor Manuel.
What do you think?
Mr Mbeki did not do well for the poor cause they are still poor and the bills passed lately are stupid bills 14 year olds for abortion if they can decide to have *** abortion why are they not voting cause they are already taking decision. Those are young kids they should taught how not to have *** and how to use condoms and pregnancy prevention. But they are taught to have unprotected *** and then go for abortion. Privatisation has taken many peoples jobs cause these tenders are given to the few we all know that. Crime levels are alarming HIV and AIDS is always high even though we are always putting more money to it. The worse is unemployment is the main cause of crime cause half the poeple in prison have commited minor offences and they don’t have 50 rand bail or hundred rand bail because there is no money. poeple are unemployed
how does it happen that there are families that have jobs for every members of their families and there are families that does not even have one member working. since the begining of time spoornet, eskom, municipalities hospitals always had jobs for matriculants now they don’t have why because you must know someone before you get job.
What a surprise ! The editor of the Times is another foaming at the mouth neoliberal that is obsessed with privatising everything, from electricity, water and air if they could get their way. No small wonder the ubiquitous media vendetta against Zuma and his left wing friends.
Erwin should in fact take the blame for not recapitalising ten years ago but instead, under the immense pressure to privatise at all costs form all the “business-friendly” Mbeki supporters , wasted time and energy trying to sell off to “BEE partners” those public utilities that belongs to all the people of South Africa.
I am Ray Hartley, the editor of The Times, South Africa, a daily newspaper which was launched in June 2007 under the Sunday Times umbrella. I'm also the editor of Times LIVE.
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chris
September 23, 2008 at 11:08 amWhilst I agree with some of the points made I find it absolutely irrelevant that Advocate Mojanku Gumbi “came from the radical Azapo party, a left wing organisation which was implacably opposed to racial reconciliation”. How can this be attributed to President Mbeki’s poor appointment. Adv. Gumbi has been an asset not only to the Presidency but to the country. To link Adv. Gumbi with the kind of vitroil attributed to AZAPO is baseless and at best reactionary. Since when has AZAPO been anti racial reconciliation when in the founding tenants of Black Consciousness it is clearly stipulated that they seek a society where race shall not be a point of reference. This is very cheap indeed.