Mbeki ‘plot’ charges raise country’s ire

President Thabo Mbeki denied on Thursday that his government was in crisis as he faced accusations of abusing his power by ordering an investigation into three prominent political rivals within the African National Congress (ANC), news reports said. The investigation was prompted by accusations that the men were plotting against Mbeki.

Reuters reported that Mbeki’s predecessor, Nelson Mandela, also stepped into the deepening controversy, saying he “held in high esteem” the three top black businessmen named by Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete.

Tshwete said on Tuesday that a police unit had been appointed to investigate claims of what he called a sinister and clandestine plot against Mbeki. He linked it to a whispering campaign holding Mbeki responsible for the 1993 murder of a key rival, revered South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani. Two whites are now serving life terms for the killing.

Cyril Ramaphosa, once a potential rival to Mbeki for the position of deputy under Mandela; Tokyo Sexwale, a former political prisoner and provincial premier; and Mathews Phosa, a former ANC legal advisor and provincial premier, were named as subjects of the inquiry. All three are now successful businessmen. Ramaphosa was the ruling ANC’s chief negotiator in the dying days of apartheid. All three have denied the allegations.

Backing the men on Thursday, Mandela said: “The three comrades that have been mentioned ... until there is evidence to substantiate the allegations, I will always regard them in high esteem. Cyril Ramaphosa led our negotiating team. It is him who is really responsible for the settlement that led (in 1994) to a democratic South Africa,” he said.

Mbeki, meanwhile, said the investigation did not represent a crisis. “Whatever is being reported, there is no crisis, certainly not in the ANC. There is no crisis either for government or for the ANC or anything,” Mbeki told reporters in Johannesburg. “It might sound very dramatic, but it is not a matter that I particularly worry about,” he was quoted as saying after a speaking engagement.

Analysts have dismissed the plot claims and the probe as an attempt to scare off rivals to Mbeki, who is also president of the ANC. The party meets next year to choose a leader who will become president if the party wins national elections in 2004.

Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which along with the Communist Party forms a tripartite ruling alliance with the ANC, warned Mbeki not to use police to fight his political battles. “We are sounding a warning that nobody should be tempted to settle a score of a purely political and democratic nature within the structures of the ANC and the alliance by involving the might of the state,” he told state-run radio.

Sheila Meintjies, a political analyst at the University of the Witwatersrand, was quoted in one news report as saying that the accusations against the men had revealed how unhappy many in the ANC were with Mbeki’s rule. “There’s been a perception that he (Mbeki) is focusing too much on international relations and too little on internal problems, and that his dabbling in AIDS was a fiasco. This is a presidentially orchestrated campaign. He is saying these are more than puppies nipping at his heels. He must feel much more threatened,” she was quoted as saying.