Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa.
ANC veteran Mathews Phosa and former Constitutional Court (ConCourt) justice Zak Yacoob have issued a joint statement in which they say they have resolved the “unfortunate spat” between the two of them.
This was after Phosa laid a criminal complaint against Yacoob after he allegedly called him on Friday night and confronted him over a legal opinion he wrote on the ANC’s step aside resolution. Phosa apparently advised the ANC not to force its corruption accused members to step down.
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He claimed the retired ConCourt judge demanded answers from him on why he wrote “such a f**king’ opinion” for the governing party.
The former ANC treasurer-general said he was taken aback by the call and also wrote to the ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte to complain.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the pair said they had “resolved what was an unacceptable situation between two senior members of South African society”.
They said ANC veteran Dr Khulu Mbatha called them both to a meeting on Tuesday morning after being concerned about what he heard in the media. Mbatha convened the meeting in his personal capacity.
Yacoob “apologised unreservedly” to Phosa for the incident and said he had high regard for him.
“I, Judge Yacoob apologise unreservedly to Dr Phosa for what I said to him at the end of our conversation. I have high regard for Dr Phosa, both as a comrade who was with me in the struggle for liberation and as a fellow lawyer. We were comrades in the dark days during Operation Vula and were united against all that the apartheid state could throw at us. I wish to restore our relationship after this unfortunate spat,” he said.
Phosa accepted Yacoob ‘s apology and said he would withdraw all complaints against him.
“I, Dr Phosa accept the apology from Judge Yacoob and shall withdraw all complaints I had laid with the police as a result of the call I received from the judge,” he said.
“We must be reminded that we shall need all the resources of our people to fight the many battles we have ahead and we must not be sidetracked by the discomforts of the present, however, they arise. Let me loosely quote Che Guevara and state that there should be peace among the people and war against the enemy. The enemies we face are poverty, unemployment and inequality, exacerbated by corruption and criminality. Let our polemic and personality differences not shift us from the path of achieving the dream our people deserve.”
The statement said Dr Mbatha knows both men both from the days of exile and especially during 1991 to 1994. He worked with Phosa when he was the chairperson of the ANC in the former Eastern Transvaal region.
During the tenure of former president Kgalema Motlanthe, Yacoob chaired the South African National Aids Council (Sanac) and worked with Dr Mbatha who was an advisor to Motlanthe.
Phosa and Yacoob said the matter was now closed.
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