Mbeki’s unswerving loyalty to the ANC

One wonders which politicians are worse for a country: looters who plunder everything they can lay their hands on, or those driven by a messianic fervour to transform society into how their ideology dictates it should be?

It’s easier to pillory the former, because their greed is obvious… as was the case with the corrupt involved in the state capture project. Not quite so easy with the latter, whose negative impact seems to pale by comparison with frenetic stealing.

ALSO READ: Thabo Mbeki: ANC has not betrayed SA

That is certainly the case with former president Thabo Mbeki, who is regarded by many as the man who should have ruled forever over our country. They conveniently forget that, under his Aids denialism, which delayed the roll-out of antiretroviral drugs, more than 250 000 people died before their time.

Driven by his visions of a glorious African Renaissance, Mbeki was not about greed, but about transformation, almost without considering the cost.

Yet, what he does have in common with the later looters – and, in his defence, corruption is not an accusation you can pin on Mbeki – is the unswerving loyalty to the ANC. This is a loyalty which is almost blind in not acknowledging faults or in blaming something else, like apartheid, for those faults.

WATCH: Mbeki claims load shedding was deliberately created by Eskom

Mbeki is outraged at people who say the ANC has betrayed South Africans. He, like many of his comrades, believes the party has had “challenges” and that it does “need to account” to its citizens. It’s all the fault, apparently, that the party did not “renew” itself after its 2017 elective conference.

One of the major reasons South Africa is in the parlous position it is, is that there is virtually no accountability. There are, largely, no consequences for wrongdoing.

Even worse, there are no apologies or reflection for failed policies. And that, comrade Mbeki does amount to betrayal…

WATCH: Mbalula clarifies remarks about disrespecting Thabo Mbeki