President Cyril Ramaphosa's office has for the first time addressed his strained relations with former president Thabo Mbeki, pointing to the latter as having diverged from the convention of allowing the incumbent to govern without public criticism.
This comes as the Mbeki Foundation published a letter it had written to the national dialogue organisers declining an invitation to attend the first convention scheduled to start on Friday.
During a media briefing at the Union Buildings on Thursday night, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya noted that Ramaphosa had been, as he put it, “by far” the most publicly criticised and attacked president by his predecessors. He said that this was a departure from the rules of the courtesy that former presidents grant to a sitting president.
“With that, the president also recognises and accepts criticism, and that we live in a democracy where there are no restrictions, people are welcome to openly criticise him. That's not something that he loses sleep over, of many issues that he has to worry about,” Magwenya said.
When asked if he agreed that Mbeki was attempting to rule from the grave, Magwenya said Ramaphosa's relationship with the former head of state is cordial and professional.
The government and national dialogue task team have been putting out fires this week after seven legacy foundations, including Mbeki's foundation, announced they would withdraw from participating in the first convention.
The foundation's decision came after negotiations with Ramaphosa to postpone the date fell apart. Since then, several political parties have announced they also will not participate in the dialogue. Among those who rejected the dialogue were lobby groups Solidarity and AfriForum.
South Africa is much bigger than any one individual or any other foundation. It would have been great to have the former president there, but if he is not there, he's not there.
— Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya
Despite this, Magwenya said there was no controversy insofar as the national dialogue process is concerned.
“What we have is a dispute that has been declared by seven or so foundations who do not represent the majority of South Africans, albeit they are entities of high standing and they are respected based on the standing of the stalwarts,” he said.
Magwenya said attempts had been made to address questions about the venue, funding and the date of the convention. He said the president expressed his anxiety about the postponement of the convention after weeks of preparation.
“It's not only to just seven foundations, but close to 100 civil society organisations and many other sectoral groups that have committed to accept [invitations to attend]. Therefore the president felt that those issues of concern must be resolved in parallel to proceeding with the holding of the first national convention.”
Meanwhile, ANC leaders said Mbeki's attitude towards the national dialogue is expected to feature in their next national working committee meeting.
Three NWC members who spoke to TimesLIVE Premium accused Mbeki of attempting to use the dialogue to restore his legacy. They said Mbeki had not raised any issue with the dialogue process during the last national executive committee meeting.
“It's opportunistic and careless. This is not about him. It's about the people. Just because he coined the term and was the first to speak publicly about this dialogue does not mean it belongs to him,” one NWC member said.
Another NWC member said Mbeki must be called to answer why he had deviated from the dialogue and that he owed the ANC an explanation for his decision.
Magwenya hit out at the legacy foundations.
“They were never set up to be constituency groups, as far as we understand them. Unless that has changed, they do not represent any particular constituency. We now have close to 1,000 confirmed delegates, and so it will be inclusive.”
He said the credibility of the dialogue cannot be determined by one person, or several organisations or foundations.
“South Africa is much bigger than any one individual or any other foundation. It would have been great to have the former president there, but if he is not there, he's not there. The reality is that the show will go on and South Africans will continue with the dialogue process.”
He, however, said that they remained hopeful that Mbeki and the foundations would participate in the process and realise that “there is no benefit of boycotting the people of South Africa”.
“They're not boycotting the president. They're not boycotting the government. They're boycotting the people of South Africa in their exercise through this national dialogue.”
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