Obadiah Mailafia
28 September 2008
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The conservative English politician, Sir Enoch Powell, once declared that "all political careers end in failure". There comes a time when the wisest thing to do is to quit the stage - as Nelson Mandela did - when the ovation is loudest.
The not-so-wise prefer to slug it out even when the audience have become insufferably fed up. Thabo Mbeki himself once toyed with the heresy of a Third Term until he read the signs of the times and decided to beat a swift retreat. His dramatic resignation on Friday, the 20th of September took many by surprise. The subsequent resignation of his cabinet en masse has created considerable anxiety in financial and political circles.
Having spent a total of 13 years as Vice President and President, he's had his innings, as the cricket-loving English would have put it. However, few ever imagined that his end would come so soon and in such a climacteric manner. The most immediate trigger was the acquittal by the courts of former Vice President Jacob Zuma from corruption charges. The judge was careful to point out that the decision was not based on a verdict of guilty or not guilty, but on account of evidence of political interference in the judicial process.
For sometime now, there has been a groundswell of popular sympathy for Zuma, seen as the underdog being persecuted by a powerful President and Chief Executive. More dangerously, the whole saga was assuming an ethnic coloration as tongues began wagging to the effect that the Xhosa power elites within the ANC do not want the mantle of leadership to pass to the majority Zulus, of which Zuma is a chief.
In December 2007 during the general conference at Polokwane, Mbeki contested and lost the Presidency of the party to his former deputy. It was clear that his position had become untenable. For my part, whilst I have some sympathy for him, I do not believe the rabble-rousing Zuma is the best leadership material for South Africa at this point in time. The most deserving candidate, in my view, is Joel Netshitenzhe, Mbeki's brilliant policy advisor, who, unfortunately, lacks a power base. A man of equal gravitas is my friend Cyril Ramaphosa, a lawyer and successful businessman. There is also, of course, Tokyo Sexwale. All great men they are. Zuma's alleged indiscretions make of him a lesser man in comparison to these men and to past Presidents of the ANC such as Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and the legendary Nelson Mandela.
Mbeki's departure marks the end of an extraordinary political career. Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki was born on 18th June, 1942 at Idutywa in the Eastern Cape, the eldest of the four children of Govan and Epainette Mbeki. His father Govan was a distinguished communist revolutionary intellectual who spent decades with Mandela and others in Robben Island. After his release, he went to the exalted office of President of the National Assembly at the same time that his son was appointed deputy to President Nelson Mandela.
Mbeki was literally born in the maelstrom of struggle. He joined the ANC as a precocious 14-year-old. He was expelled from Lovedale College, a prestigious boarding school for African boys, on account of his political activities. He earned a degree in economics by correspondence with London University, later completing a Master's from the University of Sussex. He subsequently underwent military officer training in the Soviet Union. Coming under the tutelage of the great Oliver Tambo, he quickly rose through the ranks, serving as ANC Representative in Lagos and as political commissar in Lesotho, London and Botswana.
During the 1980s when the ANC high command had decided to acquiesce to diplomatic overtures to start a dialogue process with the apartheid government, Mbeki was one of the top operatives sent to handle that highly sensitive project. The other was the erudite Chris Hani, the chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress. When I was in South Africa a few months ago, I was taken aback at the level of disillusionment against Mbeki's administration. Some even questioned the way and manner he climbed up the hierarchy to emerge as the successor to the eponymous Nelson Mandela. The irrepressible Winnie Madikizela-Mandela once described him as a 'closet Stalinist'. When one reads his authorised biography, 'Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred' (Mark Gevisser, 2007), one is struck by the single-mindedness with which the man bulldozed his way to the top. The old Florentine would have been suitably impressed.
In spite of all this, I believe honour must be given to whom it is due. Thabo Mbeki will go down in history as the engineer of South Africa's economic prosperity - by any standards one of the most illustrious leaders to have come out of our benighted continent. While Madiba played the role of royal monarch, Mbeki it was who minded the kitchen where the bacon was being baked. A deep thinker and hard taskmaster, he brooks no laziness or shoddy work. He keeps excruciatingly long hours and is rigorous and meticulous in everything he does.
Through his Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy, inflation, the exchange rate and interest rates have improved while greater macroeconomic competitiveness has been fostered. South Africa maintains probably the best system of public finance in our continent. The Reserve Bank has operated a prudent monetary policy that has ensured a stable currency, moderate inflation and a robust business environment. Property rights and contracts are respected and impartially enforced, creating a business environment that is stable, predictable and transparent - the destination of choice for international investors.
In the area of foreign policy, he was for some years the leader of the nonaligned movement, steering his country in the role of an independent and humanising influence on world affairs. His peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions in Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are noteworthy achievements. He has been the champion of African Renaissance who decried the onslaught of global apartheid and our continent's marginality in the emerging global system. His famous 'I am an African' speech to the South African parliament in May 1996 startled many by its conviction, originality and supreme confidence. It is an immortal testament to the honour and dignity of African Personality.
But it is not a record that is unblemished. There are still people who remain bitter today because their loved ones suffered summary executions in ANC military camps in Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique. Critics also have accused him of abandoning the social democratic traditions of the Freedom Charter, with its focus on land reforms, nationalisation and capital controls. His black empowerment policy has been criticised for creating a new crop of black bourgeoisie whose idea of progress is leaving the slums of Soweto for choice mansions in the leafy suburbs of Sandton.
He has also come under severe censure for his 'HIV denialist' insistence that there is no scientific connection between HIV and AIDS; a stance that may have contributed to the death of hundreds of thousands who could not gain access to anti-retroviral drugs as a consequence. The incessant power outages, the rising wave of crime and the incidence of poverty and unemployment remain blight on his administration. His political style has also come under criticism for being 'remote and academic'. The outbreak of violent xenophobia in South Africa early this year may be a permanent dent on his otherwise illustrious pan-African credentials.
Whatever his faults, I am persuaded that history will absolve him. If today South Africans feel confident about the future of their country, it is thanks to the solid foundations he has laid. Like many others, Thabo Mbeki suffered the evils of apartheid in a direct and personal way. In 1981, he lost his only son, Kwanda, presumed killed by the Boers. His youngest brother, Jama, a brilliant young lawyer, died under mysterious circumstances in Lesotho in 1982. A cousin, Phindile Mfeti, suffered a similar fate. Those who know him closely agree that the loss of his only child has left a deep scar that would follow him to his grave.
At 66, he should look forward to a well-deserved retirement as an elder statesman, reading Cato and consorting with the ghosts of his ancient Xhosa kings. May he find his rest among the righteous and the just.
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