‘Recall’ hurt Mhlaba in 1997, says Nqakula

THE ANC had betrayed and “hurt” former Eastern Cape premier Raymond Mhlaba when it asked him to resign from his position in 1997.

That’s according to former police minister and current ANC MP Charles Nqakula, who was delivering the keynote address at the annual Raymond Mhlaba Memorial Lecture at the Bhisho Legislature yesterday.

Nqakula added that the recall of “Oom Ray” – as Mhlaba was affectionately known – set a bad precedent in terms of recalls which continues to haunt the ANC to this day.

And, as someone who worked closely with Mhlaba, he said the recalling of the late ANC veteran never went down well with the province’s first democratic premier, but he did not fight it because he respected the ANC.

“I knew Oom Ray very well, I worked with him. He was my chairperson when firstly I was just an organiser in the party [SACP] and when I had become a deputy general-secretary of the party and finally, when Chris Hani was murdered.

“I worked with Oom Ray during those periods and I know who he was,” said Nqakula.

“We took Oom out of office [before end of his term] and because I knew him well I took up that fight. The last time I dealt with it, Oom Ray was on his way to China and I intercepted him at OR Tambo Airport and I told him I was going to continue to fight this thing.

“But he said ‘no, do not, because Madiba had a discussion with me and he has already assigned me to something else’.

“I said, ‘Oom Ray we do not know what [precedent] we will be opening if we let this slide’,” an emotional Nqakula went on to say.

“We created a precedent. But more than that, to me it was a betrayal of Oom Ray’s legacy.”

Nqakula said Mhlaba had dedicated all of his life to the ANC and always performed duties bestowed on him by the movement.

“He never spared an iota of his energy in the discharge of the functions he was given by our organisation – the ANC,” said Nqakula who this week was announced as President Cyril Ramaphosa’s security adviser.

“When Oom Ray died, he was a committed member of the ANC. He was a fully committed communist,” said Nqakula. —