Tensions are appearing in the Jacob Zuma camp of the ANC, with senior cabinet minister Zola Skweyiya slamming the "shocking" disrespect shown to Thabo Mbeki in the past year. And he singled out Julius Malema, the controversial ANC Youth League leader, for particular censure, describing him as "an embarrassment to the party" and "un-African". He added: "People... call me every night complaining 'What are you doing about this child?'."
Skweyiya, widely regarded as representing "the soul" of the ruling party, went so far as to invoke legendary ANC leader Oliver Tambo, saying: "If Tambo woke up and found the ANC the way it is, he would have run back to his grave... he would say, 'That can't be my ANC'."
Though a member of the ANC national executive committee, which last weekend decided to axe Mbeki as president of the country, Skweyiya has fiercely criticised the way Mbeki has been treated since he lost his position as president of the party to Zuma in Polokwane in December. Skweyiya was not one of the cabinet ministers who resigned in the wake of Mbeki's departure this week, but he indicated that he would probably retire at the end of his term of office.
In an interview with The Sunday Independent, Skweyiya pulled no punches. He criticised the ANC for not acting against those who had tried to humiliate Mbeki. "We kept quiet... The way Thabo was treated was really shocking to me. Thabo was our president, whether we like it or not. The fact is he was the president of this country and he represented the people of South Africa... That needs to be respected if we respect our constitution. I personally didn't like that." He cited the humiliating incident in Durban last year when Zuma supporters disrupted proceedings during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the repeated and much-publicised outbursts against Mbeki by the Youth League president.
Malema's ridiculing of Mbeki was unacceptable, he said. "You can't talk about the president like that... of the ANC and also of the state. It's very sad that [Malema] says he can fire Zuma. "Who is he? He's not even a member of the national executive committee. "How can he fire Zuma when Zuma has been elected by the ANC, by the people? The Youth League does not determine the policy of the ANC."
Malema was an embarrassment to the party and had to be brought into line, Skweyiya said. The party leadership had repeatedly told the youth leader to shut up but he disregarded them. Skweyiya suggested that Malema was ignorant of the ANC's history because he kept asserting that the Youth League was an "autonomous" structure. But youth leaders before Malema had taken instructions from the "mother body", even if they had not agreed with them.
Skweyiya added that Malema's conduct was un-African. "We are Africans and an elderly person is an elderly person. We say, 'You shall not dishonour your parents'. If you can't respect that, what does he think?" Skweyiya found the attacks on the judiciary and the Human Rights Commission by members of the ANC's tripartite alliance "painful". "How we treated our judges... has not been a nice thing. You might not like the judgments but... those are judges. One of the basic conditions that this government [agreed to when it] came into power was the independence of the judiciary, even though we knew that it wouldn't transform rapidly. "[And] the way we treated the Human Rights Commission is for me something very painful."
Skweyiya's remarks about Mbeki echoed those made by two veteran opposition leaders in parliament this week. IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and PAC MP Motsoko Pheko told MPs that the disrespect shown to the president was unacceptable.
Pheko said that the office of president should be "treated with the dignity it deserves". His remarks were greeted in parliament by an animated Buthelezi, who jumped up from his front bench and, punching his fist in the air, shouted in approval: "That's the truth, that's the truth!"
Later, in parliament, President Kgalema Motlanthe reminded MPs of his predecessor's achievements and leadership. He thanked Mbeki, in whose cabinet, he briefly served. "We have been privileged to have had you as our president these last nine years," he said.
Source: IoL
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