Mbeki's credibility is on the line

An important sign of the transmutation of the ANC is the appearance within its ranks of careerists: people who have forsaken the ethos of service to the poor for the quest of self-enrichment. Its equivalent at leadership level is the trade-off between the incumbents of high political office and business leaders seeking special favours, the syndrome which constitutes the core of the indictment against former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

The ANC leadership is conscious of the need to counter the threat of moral decay from within, judging by recent utterances of President Thabo Mbeki, in his capacity as the ANC’s national leader, and ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe.

In his Letter from the President published in ANC Today (Vol 5, No 41), Mbeki states the “naked truth” that ANC ranks are “being corrupted” by ignoble people seeking access to state power to “plunder the people’s resources for their personal benefit”. In his report to the ANC general national council conference Motlanthe warns that the struggle for control of public resources is present at every level of government.

Both Mbeki and Motlanthe deserve commendation for their candid assessment of the threat dishonest self-seeking members pose to the ANC. Beyond that, Mbeki merits special praise for his brave decision to dismiss Zuma as national deputy president after the judgement that categorised his relationship with Shaik as “generally corrupt”.

But Mbeki’s courage and credibility are negated by his silence on cogent evidence that Imvume Management channelled R11 million from the public treasury to the ANC shortly before the 14 April 2004 national elections. The money, part of the R15 million forwarded to Imvume by state-owned PetroSA, should have been used to pay for oil condensate for the state refinery and hence for the benefit of the general public.

It is not credible that the ANC was not aware of where the bonanza came from but instead of offering the public an explanation Mbeki and the ANC have retreated in silence behind the fig leaf offered by the Public Protector, who ruled that the ANC and Imvume were not public institutions and hence were beyond his brief. Their silence is, at the very least, highly detrimental to their credibility in the fight against corruption.

Liberation movements, of which the African National Congress is an exemplar, come to power amid high hopes. These hopes — shared in equal measure by leaders, cadres and followers — are that they will usher in more equitable societies. If the liberation movements have been influenced by communism and millenarianism, their hopes will be more utopian and invoke images of classless societies and coming golden ages of peace and prosperity.

Inevitably, however, liberation movements transmute into political parties. They lose their captivating glitter and become increasingly mundane. Their political leaders shed their transcendental glamour and, more often than not, become scheming politicians, the effort of their consultants to prolong their allure notwithstanding.

An important sign of the transmutation in the ANC’s case is the appearance within its ranks of careerists: men and women who have forsaken the ethos of service to the poor for the quest of self-enrichment, even if it means being in thrall to business notables if or when they attain public office. Its equivalent at leadership level is the trade-off between the incumbents of high political office and business leaders seeking special favours: the money for patronage and protection syndrome, which constitutes the core of the indictment against former deputy president Jacob Zuma in his pending trial for corruption.

The ANC leadership is acutely conscious of the need to counter the threat of moral decay from within, judging by recent utterances of President Thabo Mbeki in his capacity as the ANC’s national leader as well as ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe.

Mbeki has been particularly forthright. In his Letter from the President published in ANC Today (Vol 5, No 41), he states the “naked truth” that ANC ranks are “being corrupted” by ignoble people seeking access to state power to “plunder the people’s resources for their personal benefit”. In his report to the ANC general national council conference Motlanthe warns that the sordid struggle for control of public resources is present at every level of government and threatens to extinguish the “torch of freedom” that he believes that ANC has borne so proudly for decades.

These forthright comments contrast sharply with Mbeki’s attack in May 2003 on “fishers of corrupt men”, as he labelled those who suspected that the controversial arms deal was contaminated by corruption.

Nevertheless Mbeki deserves commendation for his candid assessment of the threat that dishonest self-seeking members pose to the ANC in 2005, a mere two years away from its pivotally important 2007 national conference when delegates will either elect a successor to him as ANC president or, more significantly, re-elect him for at least another five years. Ditto Motlanthe for his frank assessment. Beyond that Mbeki merits special praise for his brave decision to dismiss Zuma as national deputy president after a high court judgement categorised the relationship between businessman Schabir Shaik and Zuma as “generally corrupt”.

But Mbeki’s courage and credibility is negated by his silence on cogent evidence that Imvume Management channelled R11 million from the public treasury to the ANC less than four months before the 14 April 2004 national and provincial elections. The R11 million, which was part of the R15 million forwarded to Imvume by state-owned PetroSA, should have been used to pay for oil condensate for the state refinery and hence for the benefit of the general public. There is no justification for its transfer to the ANC.

It is not credible that the ANC was not aware of where the financial bonanza came from, the more so as the minister of minerals and energy affairs, under whose aegis PetroSA functions, was a member of the ANC national executive and thus presumably interested in the state of ANC finances.

Instead of offering the public an explanation of how the R11 million found its way into the ANC’s bank account, Mbeki and the ANC have retreated in silence behind the fig leaf offered by the Public Protector, who, while exonerating PetroSA, ruled that the ANC and Imvume were not public institutions and hence beyond his brief. His reason for not following the flow of public money is specious: when it reached Imvume it transmogrified into private money.

The silence of Mbeki and the ANC is at the very least highly detrimental to their credibility in the fight against corruption.