What Thabo Mbeki really said.

[Dave A]

I've been waiting for this.

The letter from former president Thabo Mbeki to Jacob Zuma is a stinging attack on the ANC’s criticism of breakaway leader Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota, and a critique of the “cult of personality” around Zuma himself.

The ruling party’s secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, this week quoted selectively from the letter, suggesting it amounted to a repudiation of the breakaway group that will hold its national convention in Sandton at the weekend, but the full text of the letter, which the Mail & Guardian has obtained, is more accurately described as a defence of Lekota, an implicit attack on Zuma, and a refusal to be involved in either the party’s 2009 election campaign or the internal politics of the ANC.
full story from M&G here

The story goes into some detail on the contents.

Much as expected Thabo's letter to JZ is analytical, critical and considerably less favourable to the current state of the ANC and its leadership than has been suggested by the ANC statements.

My only disappointment is that he even bothers to ask for his reputation to be protected/restored.

He then demands that Zuma “take all necessary measures” to stop party members from blaming their former president for everything they feel is wrong with the party and the *country. Zuma, he says, must remind party members that the ANC’s post-1994 legacy is based on “collective decisions” and that he must prevent them from “abandoning their democratic obligations by falsely and *dishonestly pretending that the goals of the national democratic -- revolution have been frustrated, if they have been, by one individual, Thabo Mbeki”.

Let it go, Thabo. Stick to integrity and your reputation will take care of itself.

[Dave A]

And here's the full text of the letter as published on IOL.

It was just a matter of time.

[Dave A]

Here's an odd one from that letter. Thabo is listing what he sees as national priorities in this section, and there's this one:

the rejection of the phenomenon of the emergence of a black compradore bourgeosie which, in the context of BBBEE, is ready to front both for the domestic white and international capitalists;

I wonder what his view is on black capitalists? Is it the colour or the capitalist part that offends him?