Former president Thabo Mbeki only stopped saying it, but he did say it. The elevation of his successor, Jacob Zuma, to the country's highest office was a counter-revolutionary act orchestrated by elements of the former apartheid order. And the destruction he wrought on his country during his nine years in power was in pursuit of his counter-revolutionary objective of destroying democratic South Africa.
Mbeki said the alleged counter-revolution, in which Zuma was a central figure, had “caused great damage to the entire country and great suffering to millions of our people.”
Mbeki in his speech on the 30th At this week's annual celebration of democracy at Tshwane's Freedom Park, he painted a picture of Zuma as docile collaborators in a conspiracy to overturn democratic progress, offering no resistance.
In his speech, Mr Mbeki spoke of the two stages of post-apartheid South Africa. Mr Mbeki generously quoted John Endres, chief executive of the Institute of Race Relations, who said South Africa's first 13-15 years (1994-2008) were marked by progress, and then by 2022. He said the period up to 2017 was characterized by decline.
In a lecture he gave last year at the Cato Institute, an influential Washington think tank, Endres divided South Africa's post-apartheid trajectory into the first and second periods. The first is an approximation of the Nelson Mandela and Mbeki era when things were looking very positive for this country, and the second is basically a hangover from those years. Citing extensive information from various international and local official sources, Mbeki said:
The fact is that during the first 13 to 15 years of our democracy, governments and other social partners did much to implement the vision and programs contained in the RDP White Paper and associated socio-economic development programmes. I actually went there. Collectively, national data through 2007 show progress in improving living standards comparable to other post-colonial emerging markets.
Mbeki said the “obvious differences” between the two ages “begs the question: why?” The answer to this question is particularly important because the ANC was the main ruling party in both eras. ”
Mbeki took the audience on a journey through history, essentially saying that bitter rain from elders has penetrated deep into the ANC. He said the “counter-revolution” began plotting to take over the ANC at the time of the ANC's 2002 national conference in Stellenbosch in 2007.
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“The 2007 National Conference gave the counter-revolution an opportunity to implement its plans in this regard. Therefore, in order to ensure the success of those who supported it as members of the ANC National Executive Committee, the ANC has prepared for the preparations and the conference itself. “I participated in both,” the former chairman said.
It was the meeting at which Mr Zuma was elected president of the ANC, and the NEC was dominated by many of his allies.
Dropping a very obvious hint, Mbeki said: “The apartheid regime has devoted great attention to the task of infiltrating the ANC and other broader democratic movements with as many agents as possible. In order to discover and expose these enemy agents, the ANC has Much has been done, but the harsh reality is that a significant number of these agents remain undetected within our forces.”
So was Zuma saying he was one of these operatives who later emerged as president of the ANC and the Republic, continuing the work he had done for his apartheid counterparts from his high chair in the Union Buildings?
Although Mbeki did not say so, the butter was spread very thickly. In his speech, Mr Mbeki talked about the history of the Afrikaner establishment's fear of communism and how (incorrectly) the ANC could be used as a pawn to instill this ideology among South Africans. He said something. For this reason, Mr. Mbeki said that the apartheid regime needed to do everything possible to prevent the ANC from gaining power, and even if the ANC did come to power, it would have to prevent it from achieving its objectives. Stated.
The clue to Mbeki's history is that in 1994, the deputy minister asked the police, defense forces and intelligence agencies for the names of operatives who had infiltrated the liberation movement “so that we could discuss and demobilize them”. It included the fact that I asked.
“Virtually all three services rejected our demands. The counter-revolution used ANC leaders to actually intervene in the Polokwane National Assembly,” Mbeki claimed. So was Mr Zuma, the main beneficiary of the Polokwane conference, one of them? Mr Mbeki did not say it explicitly, but the implications were very clear.
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As he did in recent speeches, Mr Mbeki cited the destruction of Eskom, Sars and other organizations by Zuma and his comrades as an example of the ongoing counter-revolution. He detailed the findings of the Zondo and Nugent justice commissions, noting that Chief Justice Raymond said: “This is one of the few instances in which President Zuma himself was directly and personally involved in the activities and planning of a government takeover.'' It is one of the…''
“Clearly, this poses a challenge for us. According to the Judiciary Committee, what we have here is a reduction in the very revenues that the government needs to meet its responsibilities, to the point where the government could collapse.” How do we explain this puzzle? The only way to explain it logically, even though it may be difficult to understand, is this. What we're dealing with is a wolf in sheep's clothing!”
Fundamentally, Zuma was not acting alone. He has been serving his master since ancient times.
He went on to detail the destruction of institutions such as the SA Police, the National Prosecuting Authority and many state-owned enterprises by those held accountable by Zuma as further examples of this counter-revolution in progress. Then there was the July 2021 uprising, which Mbeki deemed “a practical exercise to test the counter-revolution's ability to destabilize the country.”
To further his point, he quotes former SA Army Lieutenant-General Roland de Vries, who last month warned that the state remains unable to prevent similar events. De Vries said in an interview that the July 2021 unrest was “in my opinion a well-planned (counter-)revolutionary threat that magically materialized, as if on cue…” said.
Mr Mbeki's portrayal of the state occupation era as an elaborate conspiracy by the remnants of the evil apartheid regime is a hallucination, and he remains bitter about his loss to Mr Zuma in the 2007 conference. As evidence, many will dismiss it. Of course, there is also the very simple idea that Zuma was just a greedy and morally deficient person who was easily manipulated by the Gupta family and other nefarious elements.
There is also the aspect that his own leadership has alienated many of the ANC's top brass, making it ripe for the ruling party to take over as clown. But the former president's argument that Zuma's destruction of South Africa will have a positive effect on some people is thought to carry some weight. There is certainly tongue-lashing within the ANC, where the emergence of the MK party is seen as an extension of this “counter-revolutionary project”.
This means, in effect, that Zuma is still carrying out important tasks for his former masters. It's been said, but not completely said. There's a lot to chew on.