Chiara Carter
20 September 2008
opinion
The strident clamour of calls for the ANC to axe the "lame-duck" President Thabo Mbeki is far from the epithets the country's leader once enjoyed as the crown prince who became the philosopher king and was hailed as Mr Delivery.
As Mbeki's comrades were pondering how he should exit the presidency after more more than nine years at the helm, for many other South Africans a future without Mbeki is almost unimaginable.
His influence on the country and the continent has been immense and many youngsters can barely remember a time before his stamp was put on government.
That's because Mbeki, son of the revered veteran ANC leader Govan Mbeki, served under Nelson Mandela as one of two deputy presidents after the 1994 elections and later became the sole deputy president.
He increasingly assumed responsibility for the day-to-day management of government while Mandela focused on reconciliation.
The next election saw the ANC just miss a two-thirds majority and marked the start of the Mbeki era.
By 2004, Mbeki led the ANC to an even greater landslide victory.
As the then new president stepped into Mandela's "big shoes" he was welcomed by many, even outside his informal "kitchen cabinet" circle, as a moderniser, the man who would go beyond "feel good" and do, the engineer who would get the rainbow nation's engine oiled and ticking over in a new millennium.
Government bumph warbled: "One of the ANC's leading intellectuals, Mbeki commands respect as a hard worker and a task master who gets things done".
Business Day editor Peter Bruce later wrote of Mbeki: "He made the policies and he found the people to implement them he genuinely believes good governance and fiscal propriety are essential conditions for development."
One of Mbeki's undoubted achievements was improving how the government operated and he will certainly be remembered as the architect of a modern South Africa.
Post-1999, power became increasingly centralised in an enlarged presidency run by director-general Frank Chikane and the executive arm of government gained muscle as Mbeki, over nearly a decade, forged an intricate architecture that interfaced in different spheres and across departments.
Joel Netshitenzhe in an article "What is a director-general?" provided a taste of how it was in that heyday of the Mbeki era when a "quiet revolution" was happening.
He wrote: "The place is the Union Buildings: the management committee of the Forum of South African Directors-General (Fosad) is in a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki. A sequel to the day-long lekgotla Mbeki held with all directors-general (DGs) last August.
"At that lekgotla, the president posed yet another question: what are the priorities of government?
"This is the one exciting thing about the Mbeki era. More than at any other time in the past five years, government is being forced to think."
Netshitenzhe ended: "Call it centralisation or what you will, this government can think. It can tell you what a director-general is."
Yet while one Cabinet minister ruing Mbeki's fall from power recently said "nobody understands government as well as Mbeki", a national executive committee member hit back: "But what works, other than Sars?"
The point is valid - it is one of the ironies that Mbeki's refashioned state all too often failed to deliver in a way that seriously dented poverty.
Yet, the decade did see the state establish the basis for a social welfare net that stands to expand significantly in coming years.
Aside from remodelling governance, Mbeki will be remembered for his emphasis on economic stability and the years of economic growth and even boom-times.
His time in office saw the introduction of black economic empowerment measures. But development nodes, expanded public works programmes and other pet projects did not do enough to affect the terrible poverty of the many living in what amounted to another South Africa entirely from that occupied by the BEE barons.
Critically, unemployment, when the statistics were disentangled, remained a massive problem.
Then there was the shadow-side to the Mbeki presidency, which was very different from that of the rational technocrat with a taste for economics and poetry.
Aids denialism confounded many of Mbeki's colleagues, who by and large remained silent about their disagreement with his views, and to this day remains a terrible blot on his rule.
Not only did the president's espousal of quack science see him clash with virtually the whole world aside from health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, it translated into a mountain of avoidable deaths in a country that had one of the highest infection rates in the world.
While Mbeki was eventually pressured into effecting saner HIV/Aids policies, many believe he remains a denialist.
Equally strange for one who emphasised efficiency, Mbeki retained a deadweight of ministers who patently failed to deliver in their portfolios.
Significantly the notable exceptions were Mbeki's deputy, and ultimately his nemesis, Jacob Zuma, and deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
Both these axings proved fatal to Mbeki, as did the firing of intelligence chief Billy Masetlha, the early retirement of defence chief Siphiwe Nyanda and the suspension of prosecutions chief Vusi Pikoli. These moves saw Mbeki bleed support within the ANC and beyond.
Mbeki's increasingly arrogant stance alienated many but he was shielded from knowing this, not only because he habitually reads only foreign newspapers and magazines, but also because he was surrounded by a circle of sycophants who to the bitter end remained solid in their blind praise of "the chief".
Others, however, felt distaste for the cutting manner in which Mbeki put down critics. When the SACP's Jeremy Cronin warned against the "Zanufication" of the ANC under Mbeki, he was forced to apologise.
The ultra-left were repeatedly targeted. Archbishop Emiritus Desmond Tutu was attacked in an unseemly way after he had criticised Mbeki.
The race card was flashed in the face of other criticism, including when concerns were expressed over the soaring crime rate and also the issue of rape.
The arms deal, described as "the poisoned well" of post-apartheid South African politics, haunted Mbeki's time in office with corruption allegations, scandals and investigations dominating headlines for years.
Also disturbing was the extent to which the country under Mbeki was repeatedly awash with poisonous rumours of conspiracies.
There was Mbeki's claim he was the target of a massive counter-intelligence campaign by the pharmaceutical industry and the CIA.
There was the disgraceful public announcement that the state was investigating a coup plot by the very leaders Mbeki viewed as rivals: Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Matthews Phosa.
That discredited claim was followed by speculation that the real target was Zuma, who then pledged loyalty to Mbeki in a somewhat bizarre statement.
There was the odd "hoax e-mail" saga followed by the Browse mole draft report.
And of course there was the claim by Zuma that he was a victim of political conspiracy - a claim given credence by Judge Chris Nicholson last week.
Few would quibble with an assessment that Mbeki's paranoia, coupled with a vestige of Stalinism that brooked little defiance or criticism, bred the very forces that are now poised to destroy him.
Mbeki's infamous aloofness meant that even in the face of rising dissent within the ANC, the president remained largely invisible from the public, aside from his weekly diatribes in the ANC's online newsletter ANC.
While Mbeki stayed at a distance from comrades and citizens, the ANC he had lived for was a changed creature, riven by tensions and factionalism and peopled by many who did not have an exile history and were not steeped in the democratic centralist tradition. Its alliance partners were pushing for leadership and policy change.
Only towards the end of his ill-fated challenge to retain the ANC leadership for a third term, did Mbeki's advisers encourage a publicity drive and grant interviews with the president. By then it was too late and the Mbeki camp was publicly humiliated at Polokwane.
Throughout his time in office Mbeki lived his commitment to the continent, movingly outlined in his hauntingly beautiful mid-90s speech in Parliament, "I am an African".
Indeed, the president's seminal role on an international stage had many prophetically comparing him to Jan Smuts, the great international figure who lost support at home.
Time magazine rated Mbeki as one of the world's most influential leaders, and he was. Mbeki will be remembered not least for the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development as well as his leading role in tackling the problems of conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and, of course, Zimbabwe.
The crisis in Zimbabwe occasioned much criticism of Mbeki's quiet diplomacy, which ironically bore fruit in the power-sharing agreement signed just as, back home, Mbeki was dealt the hammer blow of the Nicholson ruling.
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Chiara Carter's article misses a number of points regarding President Mbeki's leadership style. Thru his leadership SA had an economic growth of 5 - 6% higher than that of USA or the UK for at least 5 - 6 years. Under him you had black empowerment, hated by whites, but wonderful for the black elites and the majority. The Black middle class doubled under his leadership
There is no South Africa leader (not even apartheid leaders) who commanded respect than President Mbeki. Even, when he disagreed with the G8 about Zimbabwe he was still the "man" the western world let speak on behave of Zimbabwe.
President Mbeki was viewed as a threat by white anglo minority "cliques" Who wanted to exploit his image as they have been doing with Former President Mandela. He helped create a more confident Africa. Africans now do not have to listen to UK, or from a small spolt and white cliques in Cape Town, South Africa. Clearly he ushered in a more bold and African style of leadership! Was he a saint...No.. a saint he was not....Did he play dirty politics with some ANC members..Yes he did!