What should former leaders do once they have left office? ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has responded to his predecessor and former president Kgalema Motlanthe's criticism of the party's alliance with Cosatu and the SA Communist Party.Motlanthe told Business Day: "My reading is that there is no alliance, there is one organisation existing inside the integuments of erstwhile independent organisations, but today to talk about Cosatu as an independent organisation from the ANC or the SACP I think is a delusion."Replying to him in a leader article in Business Day, Mantashe began by referring to a Chinese proverb to the effect that "when a person leaves, the tea gets cold". He went on to say: "This of course does not refer to tea but rather to power."Mantashe added: "As a result of the luxury imposed by not having the responsibility of elected leadership, they want to warm their tea by seeking celebrity through criticism of those in office and the policies they themselves once espoused."Clearly the ANC has been stung by Motlanthe's criticism and, perhaps, by increasingly uncomfortable remarks by former president Thabo Mbeki, although these have been coated in enough lubricant to slip through the body politic undigested.Dig deeper into Mantashe's criticism and you find that he is unimpressed by Motlanthe presenting himself as speaking out "for the sake of the country" when he is setting out to protect "individual or group interests, or to build a power base or fuel personal ambition".This takes us closer to what is really going on here. What the ANC really fears is that Motlanthe might be in the process of shifting his allegiance to a new left political formation.Think Zwelinzima Vavi, Numsa, the rising tide of student protest.The ANC has always seen the world through the lens of political conspiracy. These events might appear isolated, but the ANC sees patterns, "forces" at work, a grand design to lever it out of power in government.Motlanthe's decision to step directly into the debate over the future of the trade union movement - he also said that Numsa should never have been expelled from Cosatu - is taken as evidence that he is prepared to begin publicly associating himself with the disillusioned left unions.Mantashe's response includes a reference to "Chairman Mao", whom he credits with identifying "two types of contradictions - those between ourselves and the enemy, and those among the people themselves".Later on, he argues: "The only way, as Mao's the Correct Handling of Contradictions Amongst the People dictates, 'to settle controversial issues amongst the people is by the democratic method, the method of discussion, of criticism, of persuasion and education' and certainly not by grandstanding and coercion."This revisionist history of Mao should not be allowed to stand and it is frankly chilling that a leading ANC politician peddles the lie that Mao was a tolerant uncle who employed "the democratic method".He is famously remembered for calling for "a thousand flowers to bloom", but once people spoke their minds they were jailed, sent to correction camps or executed.Mantashe's argument has one touchy problem to overcome - the moment when Nelson Mandela famously spoke out against Mbeki's Aids policy in an ANC national executive committee meeting. Mantashe says that Mandela and the NEC did their business in private."Neither Comrade Mandela nor the national executive committee of the ANC regarded internal contradictions as an issue for public record, understanding as we still do that such would border on populism."This argument is weak. Mandela's people worked hard to get the message out into the public domain. The pressure that resulted from this played no small part in persuading the ANC to finally put the Mbeki Aids genie back in its box.Mantashe sums up with: "One of the greatest strengths of the ANC has always been the movement's ability to frankly assess its shortcomings and weaknesses. Introspection is a key pillar of the ANC's political life."Really? This does not look like introspection. It looks like intolerance...