Mbeki tells Nzimande to prove he’s as bad as Zuma

The former president does not mind the Zuma criticism, but takes less kindly to being compared to his successor.

Former President Thabo Mbeki. (File Photo by Gallo Images / The Times / Moeletsi Mabe)

On Wednesday, former president Thabo Mbeki released a letter to SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande taking him to task for his statements last week.

He challenged the SACP party boss, who is also the higher education minister, to substantiate his claims that the kinds of illegalities that have allegedly occurred during President Jacob Zuma’s period of rule also happened under Mbeki’s administration.

At the Cosatu central committee meeting at the St George’s Hotel near Pretoria last week, Nzimande claimed Zuma’s administration had displayed “ambitions for an imperial presidential system”, and Mbeki had been recalled because he had wanted “to create an imperial presidency”.

This was, according to him, now happening again under Zuma.

Nzimande said: “There were emails then. There are emails now that appeared yesterday.”

Bend it like Jacob Zuma

The minister also alleged that Mbeki has used intelligence in a “rogue” way, as Zuma was allegedly doing now.

Mbeki asked him for proof that this had indeed happened under him.

In his letter, Mbeki further said he would like to see Nzimande substantiate his “startling and extraordinary statement”, although he admitted that there had been much about what Nzimande had said that he agreed with.

The former president – who has resolutely refused to campaign for the ANC under Zuma in election after election – asked for a detailed account of how his “imperial presidential system” had manifested itself and how he had supposedly been involved with “hoax emails” similar to the #GuptaLeaks.

According to Mbeki, this “valuable information” from Nzimande would help to explain the historic and historical significance of what had happened during the lead-up to and after the ANC’s 2007 elective conference in Polokwane where Mbeki was ousted by Zuma as ANC president.

“I am making my appeal to you in this regard moved by the very correct observation you made during your address at the Cosatu CC that as revolutionaries we must live up to the Oliver Tambo injunction that – we must tell the truth, even if it coincides with what the enemy says!”

Read the full letter below: