Lies brought me down – Mbeki

THABO Mbeki says he was toppled from the ANC presidency in Polokwane in 2007 by a series of lies spread by his opponents.

And it was because of this that Jacob Zuma defeated him 10 years ago – to begin his ascent to power.

One of these lies, he pointed out, was that he had abused state resources to target political opponents, including Zuma.

Mbeki made these claims during an interview on Power FM.

And in the course of another submission, he showed how the political landscape had changed, and to what extent frosty relationships between former enemies had thawed.

Even EFF leader Julius Malema had been lied to, Mbeki said. “Lies were told to Julius by people who he had no reason to believe,” he said.

Mbeki spoke about a “lack of cohesion” in Zuma’s government, which he described as a “confederation of ministries”.

He said the country was “facing too many challenges for government not to act as a cohesive force”.

Mbeki said the president, as head of the government, should understand the chairing of cabinet meetings, where he deals with memorandums submitted by various ministers in order to take decisions that do not contradict each other.

“If you don’t do that, it then becomes individual ministerial decisions. So instead of having a cabinet, you will have what I once called a federation of ministries and Trevor (Manuel) here corrected me and said a ‘confederation of ministries’. We need to work on that so that we have a necessary cohesion in government.”

As an example of how the cabinet was fragmented, Mbeki cited a recent contradiction between the ministries of Home Affairs and Tourism over visa application issues.

Mbeki said he was surprised by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s “14- point inclusive growth economic action plan” to tackle South Africa’s economic malaise.

“You had the minister of finance making a speech on what needs to be done and I was surprised that it was the minister of finance who’s going to make a plan about how to regenerate this economy… it has nothing to do with the minister of finance. I would have expected the minister of economic affairs or trade and industry to do so.” – ANA and Staff Reporter