News / National
Thabo Mbeki still 'bitter' since the 2007 ANC Polokwane conference
16 Feb 2025 at 16:23hrs | Views
Former ANC president Thabo Mbeki stunned the party's national executive committee (NEC) members when he questioned the existence of the trial that resulted in his successor Jacob Zuma being convicted and tossed into Robben Island as a political prisoner.
Mbeki, who stopped short of calling Zuma a spy, dropped the bombshell in the NEC meeting held at Birchwood Hotel in Gauteng a few weeks ago to discuss the poor electoral showing of the ANC in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
According to the NEC leaders who attended the meeting, Mbeki questioned Zuma's case that sent him to Robben Island for 10 years, saying the circumstances surrounding it were very suspicious.
He apparently claimed that no one could attest to a trial that Zuma attended and produce records thereof, suggesting that Nkandla's most popular man was planted on Robben Island as an agent of the enemy from the day he joined the organisation.
Mbeki also told the NEC members, in what was described as a dead silent room from shock, that the Zuma phenomenon can never be understood outside looking at the man as the mascot of counter-revolution all his years in the ANC.
His comments were triggered by the consensus within the ANC that it was Zuma, through his MK Party, who cost the ANC its outright majority rule in South Africa and almost wiped out the party of OR Tambo in KZN.
"In the last NEC, president Mbeki accused Zuma, saying his imprisonment was not recorded for the 10 years he served in Robben Island. He was saying nobody knows about the trial Zuma allegedly attended and records thereof do not exist," said a long-serving member of the NEC.
The member pointed to Zuma's recent speech outside court in Durban during the appearance of his daughter Duduzile as a reference point for the former president's unintended admission.
The alleged unintended admission, said the leader, is at the point when Zuma told his supporters in the rally: "I was arrested by oppressors and sentenced to 10 years and six months. I was sentenced without setting foot in court."
Mbeki, said another NEC leader, was telling them that there was no trial and conviction and that Zuma was planted by the enemy forces to infiltrate the ANC and compromise its leaders, "hence his rise in various structures of the ANC, before and after 1994 is highly questionable".
But other NEC leaders said Mbeki's revelations had to be taken with a pinch of salt given the timing. According to them, Mbeki was "bitter" since the 2007 ANC Polokwane conference, where he suffered a defeat at the hands of Zuma for the position of ANC president.
"President Mbeki is a conspiracy theorist who has a problem with president Zuma. His argument about missing records is narrow because there are a lot of missing records for things that happened during apartheid," said an NEC member sympathetic to Zuma.
"When did Zuma become an agent of counter-revolution and when did he know this because they were best friends in exile in Swaziland sleeping in the same bed. What is obvious is that Mbeki has never recovered from the Polokwane conference defeat inflicted by Zuma, that is his main gripe.
"He talks of Zuma being a collaborator of the counter-revolutionary forces and claims that elements of this counter-revolution were carrying guns in Polokwane and if Zuma did not win there was going to be blood on the floor. With that statement, he is undermining branches and members of the ANC. In his head, he is the only genuine ANC member."
Another NEC member said Mbeki's claims contradicted statements he had previously made, where he said it was he and Zuma who detected apartheid spies within the ANC.
Another member of the NEC who is an avid critic of Zuma said Mbeki was essentially saying the MKP leader was "sneaked into Robben Island" and recruited as a spy to inform on ANC leaders.
"TM (Mbeki) was essentially saying that Zuma was always a spy," said the NEC member.
This leader said those questioning the timing were myopic because there were a lot of secrets about many ANC leaders that were kept far from the public domain for strategic purposes.
Another leader sympathetic to Mbeki said the characterisation of Zuma could be spot on hence no NEC member stood up to dispute Mbeki's version.
"The characterisation may be correct. There was silence in the meeting because
president Mbeki was stating what he believed were facts. President Mbeki went to town with the factual information characterizing Zuma as a counter-revolutionary and took us to where it all started," said the leader.
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the party does not comment on internal and confidential meetings.
Mbeki, who stopped short of calling Zuma a spy, dropped the bombshell in the NEC meeting held at Birchwood Hotel in Gauteng a few weeks ago to discuss the poor electoral showing of the ANC in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
According to the NEC leaders who attended the meeting, Mbeki questioned Zuma's case that sent him to Robben Island for 10 years, saying the circumstances surrounding it were very suspicious.
He apparently claimed that no one could attest to a trial that Zuma attended and produce records thereof, suggesting that Nkandla's most popular man was planted on Robben Island as an agent of the enemy from the day he joined the organisation.
Mbeki also told the NEC members, in what was described as a dead silent room from shock, that the Zuma phenomenon can never be understood outside looking at the man as the mascot of counter-revolution all his years in the ANC.
His comments were triggered by the consensus within the ANC that it was Zuma, through his MK Party, who cost the ANC its outright majority rule in South Africa and almost wiped out the party of OR Tambo in KZN.
"In the last NEC, president Mbeki accused Zuma, saying his imprisonment was not recorded for the 10 years he served in Robben Island. He was saying nobody knows about the trial Zuma allegedly attended and records thereof do not exist," said a long-serving member of the NEC.
The member pointed to Zuma's recent speech outside court in Durban during the appearance of his daughter Duduzile as a reference point for the former president's unintended admission.
The alleged unintended admission, said the leader, is at the point when Zuma told his supporters in the rally: "I was arrested by oppressors and sentenced to 10 years and six months. I was sentenced without setting foot in court."
Mbeki, said another NEC leader, was telling them that there was no trial and conviction and that Zuma was planted by the enemy forces to infiltrate the ANC and compromise its leaders, "hence his rise in various structures of the ANC, before and after 1994 is highly questionable".
But other NEC leaders said Mbeki's revelations had to be taken with a pinch of salt given the timing. According to them, Mbeki was "bitter" since the 2007 ANC Polokwane conference, where he suffered a defeat at the hands of Zuma for the position of ANC president.
"When did Zuma become an agent of counter-revolution and when did he know this because they were best friends in exile in Swaziland sleeping in the same bed. What is obvious is that Mbeki has never recovered from the Polokwane conference defeat inflicted by Zuma, that is his main gripe.
"He talks of Zuma being a collaborator of the counter-revolutionary forces and claims that elements of this counter-revolution were carrying guns in Polokwane and if Zuma did not win there was going to be blood on the floor. With that statement, he is undermining branches and members of the ANC. In his head, he is the only genuine ANC member."
Another NEC member said Mbeki's claims contradicted statements he had previously made, where he said it was he and Zuma who detected apartheid spies within the ANC.
Another member of the NEC who is an avid critic of Zuma said Mbeki was essentially saying the MKP leader was "sneaked into Robben Island" and recruited as a spy to inform on ANC leaders.
"TM (Mbeki) was essentially saying that Zuma was always a spy," said the NEC member.
This leader said those questioning the timing were myopic because there were a lot of secrets about many ANC leaders that were kept far from the public domain for strategic purposes.
Another leader sympathetic to Mbeki said the characterisation of Zuma could be spot on hence no NEC member stood up to dispute Mbeki's version.
"The characterisation may be correct. There was silence in the meeting because
president Mbeki was stating what he believed were facts. President Mbeki went to town with the factual information characterizing Zuma as a counter-revolutionary and took us to where it all started," said the leader.
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the party does not comment on internal and confidential meetings.
Source - sundaynews
