Address the real issues from the past, Mbeki, or why bother?

EIGHT years after leaving office, former president Thabo Mbeki suddenly has the urge to share his ruminations with the public, in the process opening old wounds or roiling those that are still festering.

He has scores to settle. A lot of stuff seems to have been bothering him all these years.

The spectacle of Mbeki shouting from the sidelines takes some getting used to. Once the allknowing intellectual giant of his party, he’s not a player any more.

Hardly a year after leaving office, Nelson Mandela was complaining that cabinet ministers, most of them his appointees, were not returning his calls. But unlike Mbeki, Mandela had been serenaded out of office, with many still craving his redoubtable presence. Mbeki, on the other hand, was dispatched to purgatory on trumped-up charges. He’s borne his treatment with steely resolve.

The response to Mbeki’s missives has ranged from curiosity (why now?) to dismissal. He’s nit-picking and it’s not catching fire.

While in office, Mbeki’s Friday newsletter, turgid prose and convoluted arguments notwithstanding, used to be a must-read. It was his bully pulpit. It alerted all and sundry to the issues bubbling in his mind. He propelled his views directly into the public sphere without the filter of the news media, and was thus able to set the agenda.

When Jacob Zuma took office, his people, realising the value of the newsletter, promised to continue it. That was a pipe dream, of course. While he can sing and dance, their man is not much of an intellect and writing is not his thing.

But Mbeki’s latest contribution is falling flat partly because it lacks that cachet of power. He’s shouting from the wilderness.

At a time when most people are angry and hurting as a result of the government’s mismanagement of their affairs, Mbeki seems to be obsessed with obscure, sectarian and almost archaic issues. He seems to have a hunger for validation. Who really cares what happened in the ANC national executive committee a decade ago? Or whether Zuma wanted to stand down of his own volition?

That is not to say there aren’t issues of significance to talk about. There are plenty. Because Mbeki laid the foundation for the mess we’re in now. It would be nice to hear him dwell on this, and to hear if he has any regrets.

The Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the arms deal, appointed by Zuma obviously to cover up the scandal, has handed its report to the president.

As the person who played a major role in the decision to buy those weapons, does Mbeki have any regrets about something that spawned so much corruption and could be the albatross that ultimately destroys the ANC? Was it morally right to spend so much on unnecessary weapons when millions of our people wallowed in poverty?

What of Mbeki’s flirting with Aids denialists, which condemned thousands of poor, mainly black, people to an unnecessary death?

A government that came to power with the stated intention to help the poor was to leave them in the lurch in their gravest hour. All sorts of lame excuses were advanced. We even pleaded poverty.

Right. We didn’t have the money to save lives, but we had the money to buy weapons we didn’t need. This monkey won’t get off Mbeki’s back until he honestly addresses it and offers his mea culpa.

And then there was Zimbabwe, where we eagerly cheered Robert Mugabe as he dismantled his country and destroyed the future of his people. The region’s breadbasket is now a basket case, barely surviving on handouts.

Mbeki’s bequest to us is Zuma, who was enjoying his obscurity in KwaZulu-Natal when Mbeki, in an attempt to stop Winnie Mandela, made him his deputy. And when Zuma got entangled in the arms deal scandal, Mbeki rightly sacked him. But, crucially, he failed to apply the coup de grâce that could have finished him off politically. And by standing for the leadership in Polokwane, Mbeki only helped to enhance Zuma’s chances and stature. We are now reaping the fruits of those missteps.

It is probably an indication of the immaturity of our politics that Mbeki could become almost persona non grata in his own party after a lifetime of loyal service.

If the party can reserve so much bile for one of its own, how can it tolerate or condone the existence of opposition parties? Does democracy stand a chance?

As somebody who’s unlikely to run for office again and therefore not a threat to anybody, Mbeki would have been a suitable sounding board for our politicians. For instance, many political parties know how to elect leaders, but have no clue how to get rid of them should they misbehave.

Elder statesmen — such as Mbeki — would be sent to tell the leader to toe the line, or that it was time to go. That tends to restrain reckless leaders such as Zuma.