Mbeki’s return to ANC makes point

habo Mbeki, the quintessential intellectual politician, has never been comfortable in a T-shirt … even one with the colours of his African National Congress.

And he wasn’t yesterday, when, for the first time in a decade, he was on the campaign trail on behalf of the organisation he has never shunned, despite his own shabby treatment.

His appearance, alongside Gauteng premier David Makhura, was more than symbolic for the ANC, which is fighting its toughest electoral battle yet.

During the years of Jacob Zuma, when corruption and state capture ran rampant, Mbeki refused to take to the hustings for the ANC, although he never resigned his membership in the party, his lifetime political home.

His presence now emphasises that he and many of the ANC’s “old guard” veterans believe that under Cyril Ramaphosa, the organisation can be saved.

Mbeki’s return to the stage, albeit not in the full glare of the spotlight, makes an important point about the ANC that its opponents would do well to understand.

People such as Mbeki are still fiercely loyal to the ANC, despite the hijacking by Zuma of the vision of the party’s founders and leaders over the decades.

He typifies those who have refused to find a political home elsewhere, even in the worst of times. These are the people the ANC and Ramaphosa can rely on.

They are also the people who will help bring back the doubters into the ANC fold – those people who may have crossed over to the Democratic Alliance, for example, exasperated by the ANC’s descent into madness.

Mbeki reminds many people of the era of Madiba, when there was a greater good people fought for – other than to feed themselves from the trough.

And, perhaps, the ANC needs to get back to its past to assure its future.