In an article for the Wall Street Journal, RW Johnson, historian and former Oxford don, and it must be said bete noir of the ruling ANC party, demolishes Mbeki’s reputation in a manner few journalists in South Africa have had the courage to do without receiving the full blast of criticism from Mbeki’s office.
But, today, Mbeki is living a losing battle. Standing for re-election of the ANC president would give him continued hold on the reigns of power, even if constitutionally, he is unable to stand for a third term as national president.
According to Johnson the word is that Mbeki’s circle of advisers “has shrunk to one or two intimates.”
Concerns among the public is that Mbeki’s judgement and behaviour have become increasingly erratic. Johnson cites a recent public gathering at which Mbeki expressed total ignorance of “tik” – a heroin derivative widely used in the Cape that has had, according to Johnson, “massive” media coverage because it causes violent and criminal behaviour.
Johnson claims too that at a recent ANC policy conference Mbeki was told by the rank and file that they did not want him to stand for the ANC presidency, that they feared the creation of two centres of power, and yet Mbeki’s response was, in Johnson’s words, “bizarre.”
“He immediately rushed to a TV camera to express his willingness to continue if the people twisted his arm to do so,” claims Johnson.
Mbeki’s political style has been characterised by “paranoia,” remarks Johnson, “casting himself as a victim, accusing other of ‘hidden agenda’s.'”
Apart from Mbeki’s peculiar stance on AIDS, his siding with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is, observers Johnson, “based on a conspiracy theory: that Western imperialists are trying to overthrow radical regimes in the region and if Zimbabwe ‘fell’, South Africa would be next.
Such policy stances have earned him the reputation as not only paranoid “accentuated by a streak of narcissism,” claims Johnson.
Johnson sumarises Mbeki: “Mr Mbeki sees himself as a major intellectual figure, towering above the rest of his party – and there was never a shortage of sycophants to confirm this view. He spends hours surfing the internet, where he gleans odds and ends of (half) knowledge which he uses to second-guess AIDS scientists, unemployment statisticians, actuarial analysts and so on.
“He peppers his speeches with quotations suggesting a vast knowledge of literature, and his weekly online letter includes earnest essays on anti-colonial history from Haiti and Sudan. Typically relying on single or dubious sources, these would be full of historical howlers.
“Mr Mbeki’s aides told me that Fidel Castro was once amazed to find their boss creeping off to write these weekly lectures, protesting, reasonably enough, that he could get other people o perform such work.
Johnson goes on to consider the contest between Mbeki and Zuma. He claims Mbeki’s opponents are now so “bitterly alienated” from him that if Mbeki fails to be re-elected as ANC president next month, they could try to remove him sooner as president of the country – Mbeki is only due to stand down in 2009.
Johnson says Mbeki has offended many of his former supporters and in the process “conjured” a true paranoid nightmare: “for it is really true now that his opponents are conspiring against him, that he is cornered and that his enemies may triumph.Â
Post published in: Uncategorized