Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
“When you talk renewal of the ANC, you’re carrying too much baggage of wrong people. You have to have the courage to face that you have a renewed ANC led by criminals,” said South Africa’s former President, Thabo Mbeki, at the annual general meeting of the Strategic Dialogue Group (SDG). He called on the African National Congress (ANC) to reflect on and deal with the looming reality that President Cyril Ramaphosa may face impeachment over the Phala Phala issue. The panel began its work on one week ago, Wednesday.
Mbeki, a technocrat and son of Nelson Mandela’s comrade Govan Mbeki, pointedly said that: “Our president is under a lot of pressure. I am talking about President Ramaphosa… around this matter of Phala Phala farm. There are criminal investigations going on. Parliament has its own processes. The Reserve Bank has done what it wants to do… What relevance does that all have to the leadership of the ANC that will come out of Nasrec at the end of the year, or is it entirely irrelevant?”
“As comrades know, they have been given 30 days to do that. The 30 days will run out sometime in the month of November. What happens if they say he has got a case to answer? What do we do?”
He cautioned that the ANC could not shy away from the inevitable discussion around Ramaphosa’s fate.”The leadership of the ANC cannot avoid meeting to discuss that in the light of that, what do we do. Do we say to the president he must step aside, or do we say let it continue through the parliamentary process? What is the impact of that in the public mind?”
The Phala Phala issue is regarding a kidnapping, cover up and money laundering case against Ramaphosa, head of the Presidential Protection Unit Major General Wally Rhoode, and Crime Intelligence members for, allegedly, concealing a February 2020 burglary at the president’s Phala Phala farm where Ramaphosa, allegedly, stashed at least $4 million in cash..
Mbeki queried: “At what point does anyone in the movement engage these two issues: what policy outcome do we want from Nasrec at the end of the year, and what leadership outcome do we want from Nasrec at the end of the year?
Mbeki added that “There are comrades in the NEC who don’t qualify to be in the NEC, much less in government but want to be elected… The country is watching. The population is watching.”
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