Zuma is the lesser of two evils - MaMbeki

With less than three weeks to go before the ANC's elective conference, struggle stalwart Epainette Mbeki has reiterated her views on the party: Jacob Zuma is the best of a bad bunch.

MaMbeki, as she is affectionately known, yesterday said she did not believe Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe would be a better person to lead the country were he to oust Zuma at the elective conference in Mangaung.

Speaking from her home in Ngcingwana in the Eastern Cape, MaMbeki said that if she had to choose between Zuma and Motlanthe as the head of the ANC, she would support Zuma.

However, the 94-year-old mother of former president Thabo Mbeki admitted Zuma had many flaws .

"He is easy-going and at times fails to make his own decisions.

"He wants to please everyone and, in the end, fails to fulfil all his promises," MaMbeki said.

"That is the weakness of his leadership and will be his own downfall as a leader.

"The ANC needed a strong leader who is not easy-going."

But the widow of ANC icon Govan Mbeki had even harsher words for Motlanthe, whom she has previously described as "dangerous".

"I don't have confidence in Kgalema and would not vote him to the presidency.

"He is a difficult character to understand. One does not know what he stands for.

"It is difficult to know where he would be leading the ANC and the country to if he could be president."

While she conceded that her son and Motlanthe shared certain characteristics - like believing in quiet diplomacy - they were starkly different in terms of leadership skills.

"You cannot compare the two."

MaMbeki, who has repeatedly lambasted the current ANC leadership, also provided some fresh insight into her son's relationship with Zuma.

Mbeki dismissed Zuma as the deputy president of South Africa in 2005 over fraud charges.

In 2007, Mbeki was replaced by Zuma as the party's president at the ANC's elective conference in Polokwane and later recalled as the president of the country.

But MaMbeki said Zuma could not be blamed for her son's change in political fortunes. He had, she said, been defeated in "a democratic process".

"Thabo is a disciplined cadre of the movement. It was the national executive committee of the ANC - not Msholozi as an individual - who recalled Thabo."

MaMbeki said she is concerned about Mbeki, like any other parent, but said he remained stoic.

"He said that the ANC deployed him and it was also its responsibility as an organisation to recall him if it felt fit. He has not held grudges," MaMbeki said.

"There is no ill-feeling between Msholozi and Thabo. Thabo convinced me that there is no bad blood between himself and Zuma as well as the ANC."