Thabo Mbeki calls for national dialogue after elections

Former president Thabo Mbeki says the ANC does not have the answer to all SA’s problems, reiterating that there is a need for a national dialogue after the May 29 elections. 

“The idea that there are some political parties, even the ANC, that have answers to all [SA’s] problems is ... wrong. The people of SA must participate in a process of determining the future of this country,” Mbeki said in eThekwini on Sunday. 

This again raises the issue that the ANC may not win an outright majority in the upcoming national and provincial poll and that there may be a need for high-level coalition talks or a second Codesa after the elections. 

Codesa was a meeting in the early 1990s at which the technicalities of transition and a changeover of leadership before the political transition from apartheid to a democratic state in 1994 were agreed on. 

“Give us strength to do the right things. Not ‘give us strength to win the elections’, but to do the right things,” Mbeki said at the Chief Albert Luthuli Museum in KwaDukuza earlier on Sunday. 

In scenes reminiscent of his 2004 election campaign in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbeki — unlike some ANC leaders — was received with great enthusiasm.

The ANC runs the risk of losing the province again after devastating riots and floods over the past five years. The party dropped below 50% in many KwaZulu-Natal municipalities, including the eThekwini metro, in the 2021 local government elections. 

This has sparked speculation that the province could soon be governed by a DA-IFP coalition after the May 29 poll. 

Mbeki went head-to-head with former president Jacob Zuma and DA leader John Steenhuisen, who were also campaigning in the province at the weekend. 

On Saturday, Mbeki said it was not true that KwaZulu-Natal residents voted along tribal lines. Instead, voters had been punishing the ANC for failing to keep its promises to the electorate. The former president was reacting to comments attributed to ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji. 

Deployed leaders

“I don’t think it has anything to do with who leads the ANC. It’s got to do with the performance of the ANC itself. I think the people are responding to that and that’s why I’m insisting on this thing that I can’t just go to the population and say ‘vote ANC’ and stop there,” Mbeki said in Msunduzi on Saturday. 

The ANC last week deployed senior leaders to the province to counter any encroachment on its voter base.

Mbeki visited Heroes Acre in Imbali township, where former SACP general secretary Moses Mabhida is buried, and conducted a walkabout at the Edendale Mall, which was rebuilt after being destroyed during the July 2021 riots. 

Mbeki said the ANC had to ensure that it deploys capable people in positions of power. He said the party was declining because people think it has been making empty promises.

“We have to make sure that the ANC, when it makes promises like it has done in its manifesto, that it actually does implement them,” said Mbeki. 

“So we have to look at the ANC itself. If you have a Thabo Mbeki who is sitting there and is useless, remove him so that you can put someone who is useful who’s going to do the things that are necessary.” With TimesLIVE

Update: May 12 2024
This story has been updated with additional information.

omarjeeh@businesslive.co.za