OPEN LETTER TO THABO MBEKI

Dear Cde Mbeki

The events that came to pass in our country in the last week have left me very little
option, but to address you directly on the matters at hand.

I am certain that you are painfully aware that the release of the transcripts of the
conversations between Ngcuka and McCarthy, not only sent shockwaves through the
nation, but through our movement. The NPA briefing finally bought closure to a
painful episode of your reign both as President of the Republic and of the ANC. An
episode one hopes will never come to pass ever again in the history of our movement.

It is a sad reality that the phenomenon we are dealing with today is a result of your
actions of conniving, manipulating people and advancing politics of patronage.
Despite the fact that you were a democratically elected President, you chose to run
both the organisation and the country with a cabal which sought to commandeer
everyone along your thinking and vision, which at times ran contrary to what the
ANC stood for.

Mandela led the ANC with distinction, and acknowledged at all times that he will
always be subject to its authority and directives, even after he left the office of ANC
President. His leadership at the helm of the ANC continues to inspire our forward
momentum and his wisdom will remain a point of reference for generations to come.

Mandela’s wise words, an icon of our liberation struggle, an embodiment of the

ANC’s values, continue to reverberate to this day. At the time of your acceptance of
your election as President of the ANC at the Mafikeng Conference in 1997, Madiba
said, “...here are the reigns of the movement – protect and guard its precious legacy;
defend its unity and integrity as committed disciples of change; pursue its popular
objectives like true revolutionaries who seek only to serve the nation… As an ordinary
member of the ANC I suppose that I will also have many privileges that I have been
deprived of over the years: to be as critical as I can be; to challenge any signs of
‘autocracy from Shell House’; and to lobby for my preferred candidates from the
branch level upwards… I look forward to that period when I will be able to wake up
with the sun; to walk the hills and valleys of Qunu in peace and tranquillity. And I am
confident that this will certainly be the case because, as I do so, and see the smiles on
the faces of children which reflect the sunshine in their hearts, I will know, comrade
Thabo and your team, that you are on the right track; you are succeeding. ”

Having reflected on Mandela’s words, I am certain that you either did not hear his
wise words, or you deliberately elected not to take heed of them. His challenge to
you to defend the unity and integrity of the ANC was central to his message and
should have been a beacon in your leadership of the ANC. The smiles on the faces of
the children are yet to reflect the sunshine in their hearts, because that moment is yet
to come.

Mandela handed you a vibrant and united ANC, yet at the twilight of your Presidency,
you chose to betray everything that Mandela and those that came before him stood
for, struggled for, and laid down their lives for. In a moment of intoxication with
power, you forgot Madiba’s wise counsel and allowed our glorious movement to
stumble on the edge of an abyss.

When your cabal was finally defeated in Polokwane because of its actions and
underhanded tactics at securing a third term for you as a President of the ANC, they
went into an elaborate conspiratorial mode, famously dubbed “the fightback
strategy,” which clearly carried your blessing. It is one’s considered view that it was
the failure of this strategy that led you and your lieutenants to spawn the so-called
Congress of the People as a vehicle to fight the ANC and undermine its hegemony
and legacy.

It is a sad day in our nation that one has to allude that your legacy, at its pinnacle, has
only brought us shame and disgrace, overshadowing what would have otherwise been
a commendable political career. It is not my place to pass judgement, but am
convinced that history will judge you very harshly for what you have come to
represent in the latter day.

I find it rather instructive that in your reaction to the release of the Ngcuka/McCarthy
transcripts you chose to pose the question as to how did the tapes come to be in the
possession of the ANC President’s lawyers. The more fundamental issue which I
would have expected would be your primary preoccupation would be how did you fail
the nation so badly such that the chain of events over the last nine years landed us in
the position we find ourselves in today. How did the state apparatus become so
embroiled in partisan politics that sought to rip our movement apart such that not even
the highest office in the land had the political will to put brakes on the rot that was
settling in?

While the movement may take collective responsibility for the actions of our
government as a ruling party, however, my heart bleeds that the relationship of trust
the ANC conferred on you in Mafikeng was broken. The mantra of your Presidency,
“the rule of law” was betrayed in the most vulgar way possible.

• When spy allegations were levelled at Bulelani Ngcuka, then National

Director of Public Prosecutions, you were swift in your appointment of the
Heffer Commission to probe those allegations as an attempt to protect him;
• When the infamous off-the-record briefings conducted by Bulelani Ngcuka
came to light, where Ngcuka is alleged to have made libellous remarks about
Jacob Zuma, who was the Deputy President of the Republic at the time, you
conveniently turned a blind eye and failed to act;
• When Bulelani Ngcuka, flanked by then Minister of Justice, Pennuel Maduna
addressed a media briefing wherein he suggested that Cde Zuma had a case to
answer, but he will not prosecute him, you once again conveniently failed to
act on what was a blatant violation of Cde Zuma’s rights;
• You then proceeded to appoint Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as Deputy
President of the Republic as a reward to the loyalty of the Ngcukas;
• When the Public Protector pronounced on the violation of Cde Zuma’s rights,
his findings were met with scorn, and again, no action was forthcoming on
your part;
• When the National Intelligence Agency expressed alarm about the unlawful
activities of the Scorpions, once again you did nothing;
 • When the Browse Mole report came to light, which was produced by the
Scorpions, you were quick to dismiss it as work of counter-revolutionary
forces, and proceeded to ignore the recommendations of Parliament’s Joint
Standing Committee on Intelligence. In an interesting twist or irony,
McCarthy, who was the head of the DSO at the time was rewarded with a
handsome golden handshake and a recommendation for a high ranking job
with the World Bank, at a time when he and those who were responsible for
the Browse Mole report should have been under investigation;
• You did not hesitate to destroy a relationship that spanned decades between
yourself and Billy Masetlha when he raised concerns about the allegedly hoax
emails that were making rounds, and you defined your relationship with him
as irretrievable.
• You continued to protect Jackie Selebi, the National Police Commissioner and
did not hesitate to suspend Vusi Pikoli, the National Director of Public
Prosecutions when he sought to arrest Selebi, for reasons known only to
yourself;
• You dismissed Cde Zuma, then Deputy President of the Republic, on the basis
of inferences in the Shabir Shaik trial. Interestingly, you were quick to cry
foul when Justice Nicholson made far reaching findings in his judgements and
drew inferences on your perceived interference with due processes of law;
• You failed to take the nation into confidence and confirm that you were the
author of the now famous letter to the Standing Committee on Public
Accounts (SCOPA) on the arms deal, a letter which was a central piece of
evidence at the Shaik trial;
• You conducted briefings to ANC structures, religious community, opposition
parties (particularly the DA) on how corrupt Cde Zuma was, in an attempt to
garner public support and sympathy, and whereby you arrogated yourself the
role of being a judge in Cde Zuma’s persecution;
• You were highly implicated as a central player in the compilation of a dossier
which sought to defame Cde Zuma in the run-up to Polokwane, which was
distributed among ANC delegates at conference;
• You failed to engage the leadership of the ANC in a face to face engagement,
and you reduced your relationship with Cde Zuma to an exchange of letters,
whose contents you leaked to Terror Lekota;
• You flatly refused to campaign for the ANC, despite your assertion that you
remain a loyal member of the ANC, and demanded that a letter be written to
you in this regard. It was the first time ever that a cadre of the ANC had to be
written a letter in order for them to campaign for the ANC. Not even Mandela
ever made such a demand on the ANC. Such practice is foreign to the tried
and tested traditions of the ANC and can best be described as anti-ANC;

It is therefore my considered view that you left the state apparatus in absolute disarray
and the state machinery completely paralysed.

It is equally interesting that you believe the Inspector-General will save the day in
what has become public humiliation of Ngcuka and McCarthy. The fundamental
question that must preoccupy the Inspector-General is not how the tapes found their
way to the ANC President’s lawyers, but rather how deep did this conspiracy ran and
to ensure that relevant organs of state act swiftly to bring the perpetrators to book.
What happened to the values of the ANC, which at some point in your political career
embodies and taught others? What happened to the ethos that says the ANC is bigger
than all of us, we are but humble servants of this revolutionary movement? What
happened to the pursuit of the founding ideals of the ANC, which the giants of our
revolution who include Cdes Langalibalele Dube, Sol Plaatjie, Walter Sisulu, Moses
Kotane, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and many others personified?

There remains little doubt that the establishment of COPE has your blessings and you
continue to encourage them to swear by your name because you do not believe that
the ANC can advance the age of hope under the stewardship of Cde Zuma, and that it
will survive without you.

I doubt if today you were president, this conspiracy that has come to light would have
been uncovered.

Fikile Mbalula
HEAD OF ORGANISING AND CAMPAIGNS AND MEMBER OF THE ANC
NEC AND NWC
Writing in his personal capacity