SIYABONGA SITHOLE
Former president Thabo Mbeki has denied that he is working behind the scenes with former state security agency head Arthur Fraser to topple ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.
On Wednesday, EFF leader Julius Malema told journalists during a briefing organised by opposition parties in Houghton that Fraser was working with Mbeki to bring Ramaphosa down. Malema said radical economic transformation (RET) forces within the ANC were not happy that Fraser had opened a case against Ramaphosa because they had not initiated Fraser's move.
“The RET forces of the ANC have never in jubilation celebrated Arthur Fraser, including on (the) Phala Phala allegations. They have never declared Fraser a hero and used Phala Phala as a way of ‘de-campaigning’ the president, that is why it is difficult to raise it in the policy conference of the ANC, because it was not their initiative.
“They are asking themselves whose agenda is Fraser driving. The answer is Fraser is with former president Mbeki in unseating President Ramaphosa because Mbeki says he is still disgruntled for not finishing his term as president. Fraser is actually working with Mbeki and not the RET forces,” Malema said.
However, Thabo Mbeki Foundation spokesperson Siyabulela Gebe yesterday denied Malema’s assertions, saying Mbeki believed the allegations emanated from “the old apartheid machinery to deepen the divisions within the ANC and frustrate efforts towards the organisation's renewal”.
“Former president Mbeki rejects Malema’s scuttlebutt with the contempt it deserves,” Gebe said.
In his days as an ANC Youth League member, Malema was a key man in agitating for the recall of Mbeki on the road to the 2007 Polokwane Conference where Mbeki’s fate was sealed.
Through Malema’s efforts, Mbeki was finally recalled and his term cut short after Malema had joined Jacob Zuma's camp in labelling Mbeki a sell-out of African aspirations, and calling for the nationalisation of mines. Zuma, meanwhile, pardoned Malema's behaviour as that of an exuberant youth.
Malema’s popularity in the ANC grew. He went from the position of secretary of the Limpopo ANC Youth league after the Polokwane conference to ANC Youth League president in April 2008.
Since then, Malema has become a kingmaker and de-throner. As the leader of the EFF he campaigned for a series of motions of no confidence against Zuma and when Zuma was finally removed at the Nasrec Conference in December 2007, it seemed as though history was repeating itself once again.