Memory plays tricks

Frank Chikane's political memoir whitewashes the tragic truth about a president whose blind hubris cost thousands of lives

THEY say hindsight is perfect sight. Then again, they also say there are none so blind as those that will not see.

It is the latter that uncomfortably assailed me as I read South Africa's latest best-seller - the Rev Frank Chikane's Eight Days in September: The Removal of Thabo Mbeki .

If Chikane is to be believed, Mbeki's removal from office was the greatest tragedy to befall modern Africa, and indeed the world.

Chikane casts Mbeki as a noble sufferer who stepped aside as a conscientious cadre, who swallowed his personal hurt and sense of betrayal to spare his country and his party in the face of the "boorish, foul mood that emerged at Polokwane".

Chikane assumes our memories are as short and forgiving as his clearly has become in his hagiography of Mbeki. Yes, we've acknowledged that Mbeki is cleverer and more learned than his successor, whose last proper visit to a classroom was in primary school.

Yes, we know Mbeki loved being a central actor on the global stage while advocating his pet project of Africa's revival. But many bemoaned the fact that he seemed to prefer others' company to that of his countrymen as he racked up the miles on his presidential plane. And, yes, history will probably be kind to Mbeki for daring to articulate some unpalatable truths about the neglect and abuse of our continent by the developed world.

So, once we've accepted Chikane's repeated assertion that Mbeki was a visionary leader - as far as global politics were concerned, at the very least - what else did he do for this nation?

While he oversaw strong economic growth in South Africa, Mbeki could not reduce unemployment, even while highlighting the existence of the country's two economies, one rich and the other poor.

And - this is where my irritation ballooned at Chikane's badly edited, badly skewed recollection - Mbeki can almost single-handedly be held responsible for thousands of Aids-related deaths in South Africa. This was a man who told an international newspaper that he "honestly, really" never knew anyone who had died of Aids, and who declined to listen to the medical fraternity about the potential life-extending benefits of antiretrovirals.

This is the man who stood by a 2002 crackpot document, "Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics".

Mark Gevisser recalls receiving a call from Mbeki in 2007 about the document while researching his The Dream Deferred biography: "... Mbeki declined to confirm, stating that it had been written by a 'collective' of ANC leaders, but agreed that it was an accurate reflection of his views. The following day, a Presidency driver delivered a hard copy almost twice as long as the one circulated in 2002.

"There is no question as to the message Thabo Mbeki was delivering to me along with this document: he was now, as he had been since 1999, an Aids dissident."

This is the man who was such an authoritarian "visionary" that he presided over a cabinet of browbeaten men and women too scared to challenge him on Aids lest they were cast from his circle.

By the time Mbeki's government was forced, by the Treatment Action Campaign's court case, to provide antiretrovirals to pregnant HIV-positive women, the damage was considerable and tragic.

Chikane cannot bring himself to criticise Mbeki, even though it is estimated that about 330000 South Africans died during the time that the former president "challenged" the pharmaceutical industry.

Chikane unashamedly insists that Mbeki was way ahead of his time on Aids.

He writes: "We convinced the president that he had made his point and that he would go into history as one president who did take on the international pharmaceutical establishment to change their policies globally in favour of the poor ..."

Chikane, unfortunately, for all his best attempts at casting Mbeki as the victim of a brutal, internal party revolution, has not managed to negate the image of the former president as a man of hubris.

And certainly he has not managed to dissuade me that Mbeki and his cowed cabinet allowed too many people to die in my country.

Chikane's Eight Dayshas already sold out, even though it was only released on March 8. Which goes to illustrate that spin sells. Chikane's whitewash of the Mbeki presidency ranks right up there with the best that spin doctors could possibly offer.

Chikane promises us another book in September - this one cleverly punted as containing "the things I could not say".

It promises to tell us about Mbeki's blind spots, his dealings with HIV and Aids, Zimbabwe and other issues.

I can't wait.