NEWS
New book lifts lid on "paranoid" Mbeki
Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:27 PM GMT

By Alistair Thomson

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A new book describes South African President Thabo Mbeki as a paranoid control freak whose ruthless silencing of critics of his policies on Zimbabwe and AIDS risks a backlash of the left and disenfranchised poor.

In an uncompromising, critique South African journalist William Gumede paints a picture of a highly effective cut-and-thrust politician behind the urbane pipe-smoking statesman who often charms Western leaders and businessmen.

Gumede's book "Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC", which hits bookstores this week, charts the rise of Mbeki, whom he says was catapulted into pole position to succeed Nelson Mandela as party and national president by the murder of Communist Party leader Chris Hani by rightwingers in 1993.

Mbeki then sidelined rivals like now-businessmen Cyril Ramaphosa, Mandela's favourite, and Tokyo Sexwale "in a series of rapid and ruthless political manoeuvres behind the scenes".

"Never was his paranoia more apparent than when he announced that his former rivals -- Ramaphosa, Sexwale and (Mathews) Phosa -- were conspiring to oust him in 2001," Gumede writes.

Gumede is scathing of Mbeki's refusal to take neighbouring Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, to task over human rights abuses and the collapse of that country's once vibrant economy.

"For Mbeki, 'quiet diplomacy' means abstaining from public rebuke of Mugabe while telling him privately, over a cup of tea, that some people are a little annoyed with him," he writes.

"It would be foolish to pretend anything except that the universally reviled Mugabe had outplayed the silky Mbeki at his own game. Quiet diplomacy has failed abysmally to stop the rot in Zimbabwe, but it is not in Mbeki's make-up to admit defeat."

Mbeki's spokesman dismissed Gumede's criticisms, saying it had become fashionable to publish "fanciful claims" about Mbeki. "The facts speak for themselves: The country under the leadership of the president stands high in the community of nations and his positions on crucial issues such as the fight against HIV/AIDS are well known and have been widely hailed by the U.N. and serious observers internationally," he added.

POVERTY, AIDS TIMEBOMB

Gumede says that in its rush to appease business and markets after the ANC victory in free elections in 1994, the ANC under Mbeki failed the poor black masses it was meant to serve.
"Unless the economy delivers to the country's poor, South Africa's democratic miracle could unravel," Gumede says.
Mbeki is already facing increasing pressure from labour federation COSATU, a key ally of the ANC, on issues ranging from the strength of the rand, job losses and Zimbabwe.
Gumede reserves some of his most cutting criticism for Mbeki's refusal, fed by "nocturnal online research," to accept that the HIV virus causes AIDS, and for his refusal to allow the ANC to debate policies on AIDS, Zimbabwe or the economy.
"In dealing with AIDS, Mbeki may have wandered off on a deadly diversion that has helped place an entire nation in denial and needlessly taken the lives of millions of its citizens."
Gumede chronicles the downfall or marginalisation of politicians who crossed Mbeki. He alleges Mbeki neutralised them using all the party and state resources at his disposal, from spying to media leaks calling their probity into question.
Mbeki's spokesman declined to discuss this allegation and other specific aspects of the book before reading it.
Gumede says Mbeki's handling of investigations into bribery accusations against Deputy President Jacob Zuma, whose financial adviser is on trial on charges of soliciting a bribe for Zuma from a French arms firm, has been motivated in part by a wish to sideline an estranged ally and rival in such a way as to avoid a huge backlash from Zuma's many grassroots supporters.
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