WATCH: Mbeki stance on policies defended in robust debate
Former President Thabo Mbeki remains misunderstood and mischaracterised on his stance on Zimbabwe, Aids, and whites.
This was said in a spirited defence of one of the great Africans by authors who contributed to the 540-page tome, The Thabo Mbeki I Know who attended an almost full Dispatch and University of Fort Hare dialogue in the Guild Theatre last night.
Main speaker Welile Nhlapho, a former ambassador to Washington and “now-retired” special security adviser to President Jacob Zuma, described how Mbeki had been a defining presence during a long, intense, intellectual and political journey from Black Consciousness with Steve Biko to joining the ANC after the 1976 student uprising.
Yet, he said, some of the reasons he had been part of black consciousness continued through to today with racist spats in which black people were characterised as “monkeys” and diminished as people with no identity.
But Mbeki had made great strides in making the world and its leaders stand up and respect African identity and power, particularly during the Zimbabwe crisis when Mbeki had been involved from the outset of the Lancaster House process through to the political crisis today.
Asked if he was so filled with admiration for Mbeki that he could not see bias, Nhlapho denied this saying Mbeki had been bold enough to raise issues with President Robert Mugabe over violence to the point there was mutterings about him interfering in internal issues there.
He said Mbeki had also been firm with Tony Blair and George Bush and had persuaded them to stay out of the Zimbabwe transition and allow Africans to engage with the issues themselves.
He said Mbeki had argued strongly with Mugabe, who he once described as a “cunning fox”, to accept that for there to be unity there should also be freedom of the press, an independent judiciary and an end to violence against the opposition.
These issues were being raised in Zimbabwe today still, he said.
Fort Harian and contributor to the book Mavuso Msimang was unable to attend as billed, but advocate Max Boqwana, CEO of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, said of those who criticised Mbeki: “People don’t read the facts, and don’t bother to understand his theorising (on critical issues).”
Professor Sofiso Ndlovu, one of the team of editors, said there was a fear that liberation history was disappearing as activists died. Thus 3000 people were interviewed from leaders to workers about the history of the struggle and it was hoped this would turn into seven volumes.