Weekend Post

Max Du Preez

Come back, Thabo, all is forgiven (well, almost all).

There cannot be a more telling indictment of the leadership of President Jacob Zuma than the sudden excitement at the possibility of Thabo Mbeki making a comeback.

I must confess I feel excited about the prospect too and, yes, I am mildly embarrassed to have to admit this.

One of the wisest and most admirable things our former president had done in his long career was to stay out of public politics since he was unceremoniously fired as president in September 2008.

It must have been hard. The man has a strong sense of his own intellectual prowess and a known disdain for that of his successor.

Mbeki is acutely aware that he was the most influential and accomplished ANC figure in the party outside the club of grand old men (Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo) during the past three decades.

I know from personal interaction with him over those three decades that he is obsessed with his own legacy, which was severely dented with his undignified departure.

He’s not too old for a leadership role either: Mbeki is two months younger than Zuma, and only turns 70 in five months time.

I bet Mbeki didn’t expect his return to active politics (if that is indeed what is going to happen now) would be thanks to the same people (Julius Malema, et al) who called him a snake and the enemy of the masses just three years ago. These elements clearly have no interest in Mbeki’s intellectual input; they are simply pushing him back into the ring to spite Zuma.

But we should also remember that Mbeki had substantial support in the ANC when he lost the leadership battle to Zuma at Polokwane in December 2007 – and that support came from the cream of the ANC rather than the Youth League riff-raff and those who thought they would be able to lead Zuma by the nose and build their own empires.

Mbeki’s dignified behaviour over the past three years and the quiet role he had played all over Africa won him even more respect from old admirers.

(Here’s a thought: would an Mbeki return to the fold mean a final nail in the coffin of those who broke away from the ANC after he was kicked out? Can we now finally say goodbye to Cope?)

Mbeki was badly hurt by his ousting. I can’t see him standing for any formal position in the party.

He must also know that the Zuma camp’s hostility towards him hasn’t abated one bit, especially since Malema has started using his name to irritate Zuma.

But what if there was a groundswell of support for the idea that he should once again become president of the ANC and SA after the party’s elections in Mangaung at the end of the year? It’s not such an outrageous idea, you know.

Vladimir Putin is campaigning for the presidency of Russia this year after he had to step down after two terms and became prime minister.

The strongest candidate to take Zuma’s place right now seems to be Kgalema Motlanthe, and he’s also been president, remember?

Let us agree (if only for the sake of argument) that Zuma has been a disaster as president. I certainly wouldn’t want to see him undermine our future for five more years.

Motlanthe seems a nice enough guy, although his best attribute seems to be that he “looks presidential” – we don’t really know what he actually stands for and if he would be strong enough to stop the rot.

Who else is there? Lindiwe Sisulu is the only name that comes to mind; the other two wannabes, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa, having ruled themselves out of the running through their opportunistic alliances and dealings with Malema and other shady characters. Sisulu is talented and hard working, all right, but her authoritarian tendencies and obsession with secrecy seriously scare me.

If we could erase Mbeki’s madness around HIV and Aids from history, wouldn’t he just be the best person for the job?

His “aloofness” and lack of interaction with all leaders of the Tripartite Alliance were the main reasons for his sacking.

He must have learnt that lesson – and those who wanted a dancing, smiling, pliable, warm-hearted president in his place must also know now what price we paid for that.

Mbeki is an intellectual giant, he’s a statesman, he is a modern, innovative leader, he is charismatic and South Africans and the world take him seriously – all attributes Zuma doesn’t have.

Sadly, the price we paid for Mbeki’s Aids lunacy can never be forgiven or forgotten. But that shouldn’t exclude him from playing a role as wise counsel in the ANC’s national executive committee.