A controversial BBC documentary portraying South Africa as being on a downward spiral is an accurate portrayal of the country and the ANC is the main destabilising factor, leading intellectual Moeletsi Mbeki has said.
Mbeki, brother of President Thabo Mbeki, told the Cape Argus that South Africans had to face the fact the rest of the world had reason to be "very concerned" about the direction in which the country was moving.
Mbeki also criticised new ANC president Jacob Zuma for "bad-mouthing" his own country's political and justice system in a foreign country.
Zuma claimed in court papers in Mauritius this week that fraud charges against him were part of a political move against him.
In court, Zuma accused President Mbeki and suspended director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli of being the chief suspects in a conspiracy against him.
Moeletsi Mbeki, who is deputy chairperson of the SA Institute of International Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, said: "Here we have the president of the ANC, the possible future president of the country, claiming that the 16 charges of fraud against him are part of a political campaign to keep him out of office.
"There are no such things as political trials in this country, but he goes and says so in a foreign country, creating a bad impression of his own country's justice system.
"The world looks at this country, they hear things like that, they see that the ruling party's president is going to appear in court on 16 charges of fraud and what should they think?"
Moeletsi Mbeki was responding to the debate that has raged following the scathing documentary No More Mandelas, which was aired on the BBC and on M-Net's Carte Blanche on Sunday.
The documentary was made by journalist Fergal Keane and included a revealing interview with Zuma.
It focused on crime including interviews with criminals, alleged political corruption and HIV/Aids.
The Cape Argus reported on Thursday that government agencies are scrambling to come up with ways to boost the country's image in light of recent events in the country which have triggered reports such as the BBC documentary.
Mbeki also highlighted the government's plan to disband the Scorpions as a "major concern".
"Here we have a country with a major crime problem, a major corruption problem and what does the government do?
"They plan the disbanding of the country's most successful and effective crime-fighting agency. It is mad and it sends out only one message," he said.
Author and commentator Xolela Mangcu also described Zuma's claims in the court papers as "weird and surreal".
"I don't know what it will take for South Africans to come to terms with the truth," he said.
"It seems they do not know what it will take to get them to see that we are in deep trouble. No amount of spin will wash the reality away.
"I wish we had a different government that would face the truth and act, and acknowledge our problems.
"In his budget speech, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said we were all in it together and that sounded like a belated appeal to get people to work together against our problems.
"But the government was elected to act."