‘We sleep very peacefully’ – Former speaker Baleka Mbete on Zuma and MK party threat
While on the campaign trail Baleka Mbete shared her thoughts on Zuma pulling support away from the ANC.
Baleka Mbete briefing media at Luthuli House in 2023. Photo: ANC/Twitter
ANC stalwart and former Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete has taken aim at her old colleague.
While on the campaign trail in Ekurhuleni, Mbete claimed that former president Jacob Zuma was not her friend and that she did not protect him while he was in office.
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Mbete was a prominent ally of Zuma’s following the 2007 ANC conference in Polokwane, leading to her ascension to the speaker’s chair.
She was quoted by the Mail and Guardian saying that while deployed in her capacity as speaker, she was simply doing her job, and would even have protected former president FW de Klerk if the role had called for it.
Not afraid of MK party
The ANC has dealt with breakaway parties before, and Mbete seems to be taking the MK party threat in her stride.
She was also quoted by the Sunday World dismissing her ties with Zuma and his new party.
“We are not friends, we were comrades who worked together at a particular time. [We] sleep very peacefully at night. Ours is to remind ourselves about the good work of the ANC.
“Splinters like the MK party are not going to win because they have nothing to show as proof of what they have done for the country,” she said.
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The ruling party has relied on many of their most esteemed leaders of the past to drum up support at ground level.
Ramaphosa is said to have received a warm reception in Limpopo recently, building on his time in Cape Town where he claimed the party would again hold onto its 50% majority.
Despite their bullish attitude, polls have the party slipping beneath the 50% mark.
However, sending the veterans of the first 30 years of democracy has helped boost their outlook.
Social Research Foundation (SFR) director Frans Cronje noted data acquired since the appearances of former president Thabo Mbeki and former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe represented a bump of at least four percentage points.
