By writing his little letter to the deputy president, in which he frets about a corrupt ANC trying to cover up Phala Phala to protect Cyril Ramaphosa, Thabo Mbeki has once again confirmed that he is a supreme hypocrite. But being a hypocrite doesn’t mean you’re wrong.
Of course, some hypocrisies are harder to swallow than others, and when it’s this thick and chunky I understand if you’re gagging.
After all, the person doing the self-righteous finger-pointing this time around is the same man who embraced pseudoscience, quackery and conspiracy theory with such idiotic and reckless zeal that 300,000 South Africans died preventable deaths.
This is the man who attacked journalists for reporting on South Africa’s violent crime and rape pandemics, declaring them to be unpatriotic racists.
This is the man who, preaching democracy and freedom out of one side of his mouth, publicly backed sham elections in Zimbabwe and helped doom that country to another twenty years of ruin.
And perhaps most relevant to his letter this week, this is also the man who did everything he could to block a thorough investigation into the Arms Deal, a deal, it is now widely accepted, that injected industrial quantities of corruption into the heart and soul of the ANC and probably started the very rot Mbeki is whining about now.
His motives for writing the letter also reek of self-serving revisionism.
Yes, Mbeki is without question a hypocrite. Perhaps he is even a charlatan, an enabler of corruption, and, in the case of Zimbabwe, a nation-wrecker. But in this case, every one of his concerns is valid.
As a keen student of history, Mbeki is interested in the idea of legacy, and will no doubt understand that his legacy is that he shat the bed. He won’t be able to undo that mess, but he can, at the very least, throw a few cups of bleach at it and make some stern comments about the importance of getting to the loo in time.
There also seems to be some score-settling happening. It is common knowledge that Nelson Mandela wanted Ramaphosa as his deputy in 1994. It’s hard to remember now, but back then, Ramaphosa was a supremely impressive figure: a trade unionist turned statesman, who had negotiated a peaceful transition and helped create the best constitution in the world. Mbeki, on the other hand, was viewed as a chilly technocrat; a great cure for insomnia but not really someone who stirred the blood.
In the end the job went to Mbeki, but if that ego-battering judgment by Mandela rankled him as much as some believe it did, this week’s letter no doubt scratched a certain 30-year itch.
Yes, Mbeki is without question a hypocrite. Perhaps he is even a charlatan, an enabler of corruption, and, in the case of Zimbabwe, a nation wrecker. But in this case, every one of his concerns is valid.
The ANC is rotten. The ANC has covered up Phala Phala. Ramaphosa should be investigated but won’t be.
Does this change anything about Mbeki’s legacy? I would argue not: he remains a major intellectual, with a mind so sharp that he is able, in 2023, to suggest that the ANC might not be entirely honest and tends to protect senior leaders from legal consequences. That’s insight on a whole different level.
Still, at least he’s given his future biographers material for one final chapter: the bleach-throwing years. It won’t convince anyone of anything, of course, but if you’re going to take your readers for idiots, at least be consistent right to the end.
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