Outgoing President Thabo Mbeki’s mother, Epainette, is backing moves to split the African National Congress (ANC) and form a new breakaway political party.
News of the plans by Mbeki supporters to form a new breakaway party emerged this weekend after the ANC national executive committee (NEC) announced that it had resolved to recall Mbeki from his office.
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, his deputy Mluleki George and Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa are believed to be spearheading the campaign to start the still-to-be-named political party.
On Sunday George would neither confirm nor deny the moves, saying only that an announcement would be made soon.
On Monday, Ma’Mbeki, as the 92-year-old struggle veteran is affectionately known, said she was aware of the the plans and backed the move to split the ANC as she saw no future in the organisation under current president Jacob Zuma.
At the present moment I support the initiative of a new party, because people are confused (and) maybe that would unite the people. I personally buy into the idea, I support it 100 percent,” she said.
Speaking from her home in Ngcingwana outside Dutywa, Ma’Mbeki – an ANC veteran who has served the organisation for more than 60 years after first joining the then Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) at the age 21.
However, she would not try and influence her son to join the party, as she believed that it was an individual’s decision to do so.
“I will leave the ANC and join the new political party, because we have suffered as people a lot in the way Thabo has been treated,” she said.
“I am going with a side that is certain to bring progress.
Well, strong words from Ma’Mbeki on the party that she so faithfully served all her life.
If this party is formed, it could transform the landscape of South African politics.
Is it a good or a bad thing? And would you vote for such a party? Blog NOW and make your voice heard.
Onthou julle vir Mot?
Good for you, Tadashi, Thando. I see Malice Hole has gone all quiet – maybe he’s trying to find a dictionary to check what “nincompoop” means. I looked it up – it says “nincompoop (n) – a Malema, alternatively a Vavi (no further explanation needed)”.
Trevor Manual has my vote for prez
It is sad to loose President Mbeki, especially in this manner. ANC is a joke with its mickey mouse leaders.
Good bye Mbeki, you will always be a Hero, it’s not all of us who hate you. If you form your own party., be sure on my membership. Step down and let the mickey mice lead, you will always be in their hearts but they would never admit
I do not understand how some people can think, they do not use their brains, they think with their arses jst like the their so-called leader the Malema, what you are saying Sibahle, Yolanda, Lololo, Sean and Z is rubbish and non-sense it seems like you are Zuma’s suppoters hence you using your brains just like him, you are right Opstoker I wouldn’t be supprised if these five were Zuma’s suppoters and if they knew what they are talking about, the ANC is a joke with its new leadership; who do not even know to respond critically to questions when being asked in interviews the like of Malema and others, who the hell in his/her sober mind wants to be represented by these illiterates internationally? Well in moments like these one feels ashamed to be the holder of the ANC membership. Yes we do believe and acknowledge that Mbeki would not lead us forever we anticipated change but not in this manner, if this is the way he’ll be sacked and ousted, then South Africa and the ANC didn’t deserve to have a leader of his tenature and calibre, is such a loyal servant, a cadre and veteran who served the ANC for 5 decades plus, be ousted in an like this surely we are not thankful, but I am not surprised South Africa (its people)tend to appreciate people when they are dead not still alive. They are talking about President Thabo Mbeki that he has not done enough what they hell did they want him to do, to go house to house and ask how many people are unemployment and provide employment for them in the Cabinet and in the South African National defence force, hell no! This is a wake up call to everybody, stand up and do it for yourself, its about a matter of time that they’ll be critising their so-called Msholozi and saying they do not want him because he doesn’t give them undivided attention visiting every household and drinking tea with them … South Africa is becoming a joke in public, there is no better leader after Mbeki, the legacy of good governance ended, which was fought hard for by the likes of John Langalibalele Dube, OR Tambo, Govan Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, Tsietsi Mashinini, Chris Hani, Steve Biko and many more… some of these people lost their lives because of this democracy we enjoy today.
Thank you Baxolise – now my eyes have been opened. So why am I still afraid? Maybe because the blind are leading the blind towards the precipice. Maybe because the stock market lost R54 billion in value in the 25 minutes after Trevor’s resignation was announced. Who loses? The retirement savings of the workers of the country. That’s us, you vacuous, hare-brained nincompoop. Check with your pension fund.
Sean – I know who isn’t!
JZ is the leader of the anc. Who is leading him?
Opstoker,
The fact that i have written popster instead of opstoker was not an incidental one but rather a well orchestrated move to sohow you that when you engage it is as if you are a pop idol who was made by accidental circumstances to emerge in politics.
You have further proved that you can be a very usefull idiot if you get what i mean and this is shown by the fact that you continue to call other people semi-literate and if you knew the real me you\’ll be ashamed of yourself. Anyway the topic also was not about Popster or Opstoker but was about the move to create another opposition for ANC and can you please move and engage the content and not try to intimidate people whilst you don’t have clue about the topic discussed eish sorry i should have said you have the clue but it lacks political clarity and at the end it makes a human corpse without bones.
Asikhulume please,is it assisting that when a particular member is recalled people are moving out? Isn’t this thing proves them to be populists or rather power mongers who can’t work if there’s no guarantee that they will be deployed in new administration.Well it’s a shame if you POPSTER don’t see that.
[…] she saw no future in the organisation under current president Jacob Zuma.”
Eish! It’s again a pity that an aging freedom veteran is dragging herself to this nonsense.
US humorist, Will Rogers (1879-1935) once said, “You can’t say that civilizations don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”
Undermining the credibility of prospective Zuma’s administration is just disastrous and?sorry to say this?verbal diarrhea.
She’s just crying crocodile tears, she watched her son manipulating and ******** whatever state organ he could get his hands on; but what did Ma’Mbeki do, wait for it….wait…wait…here here. Quiet, shhh, mute- just like his son.
As they say, the apple or the leaf of a tree will never fall far from its stem.
His son kept mute, while the oily faced aging Mad Bob raped, screwed, abducted, raped, tortured and killed innocent civilians just because they happened to see things in different way.
Quiet diplomacy.
They can go on and open their political party, but what they cannot do, is to fool ordinary citizens. He will, atleast, get a chance to rule such like his personal fief.
New party= New horse, same jockey…what else can you expect?
It’s such a pity for Ma’Mbeki, the sooner she retires from politics the better for her legacy.
The blog above from Baxolise proves the point made earlier by me: semi-literate, delusional and befuddled is a kind way of describing it. First of all, how do you manage to read “Opstoker” as “Popster”? What in Hades is a “Popster”? And if you can’t read a simple word like that, and copy it accurately, who the hell are you to comment on politics or history? Is this seriously the quality of debate that is going on in the ruling party? Be afraid – be very afraid.
How about they change ANC to CWC ..crisis what crisis
Hey WGF, …. you forgot, … ANC = All New Criminals
I watched with sadness and pride this week, the resignation of the President, Mr. Mbeki. It was with sadness to see such a proud and noble man humiliated in such an unnecessary fashion, especially when you consider his term of office was nearly done anyway, he was preparing to hand over to the new administration early next year. It was however, with pride I watched the dignity in which he handled this humiliation and the pain of betrayal he must have felt. It is not that I agreed with all his policies and statements in the past, nor did I agree with many of his appointments to cabinet. Some of these where ludicrous to say the least, but are we not jumping from the frying pan into the fire?
Having removed the President, one would have expected the ruling party to have then announced the replacement, if only to allay the fears of the population, this needless to say did not occur, instead we were told the announcement would be made in parliament later.
Mr. Zuma did however give a press briefing in the afternoon, which left me with a feeling of apprehension for the future. This fear was not caused so much by what was said, as nothing of value was said, but by the manner in which the interview was handled. First of all, Mr. Zuma was late for the briefing, which will not have left a good impression on the journalists present, particularly international journalists. Secondly and more importantly, Mr. Zuma appeared totally unprepared for the interview, relying on the party spokesperson to not only keep track of the questions asked, but also to supply the answers. The third frightening factor was the inclusion of the much lamented Julius Malema in the briefing party. It is not that I have anything against the youth participating in government, after all they are the future, but this worthy’s resent ranting and raving is more in keeping with a rabid animal than with civilised humankind. Look to the North, isn’t one Bob in this world is enough? One would think so.
Finally, I will leave you with this somewhat unpleasant thought, for those of us old enough to remember, was not this briefing rather reminiscent of briefings conducted by a certain infamous Former President of Uganda? One Idi Amin DaDa and look what happened there!
LOL
WGAF : Herewith my completed application form
1. Race – South African
2. Political Affiliation – Too scared to say
3. Political History – None. Dangerous topic
I trust the above is in order and that I will be accepted into the club.
Yours sincerely
Micky, herewith the application questionnaire:
1. Race:
2. Political Affiliation:
3. Political History:
You want to know more?
Popster,
The fact that Stalin proved Marx wrong doesn\’t say his views on \”Better fewer but better\” were wrong and i\’ll maintain that again.Remember popster that Marx again said \”not every reasoning forms a reasonable reason\” and i\’m saying that because of the statement that is made by some of the people who are thinking of joining another structure because of the recall of TM.
Cde TM is still a member of ANC and secondly if people think that when TM is gone there\’s no ANC then they must leave and i\’m going to repeat the same thing if it happens that JZ is recalled in his term as President because ANC is not ANC by JZ,by TM but ANC is ANC and all Comrades of Comrades can go and leave Comrades of ANC in ANC doing what the ANC mandated them to do.
The last thing that i want to clarify is that a Recall doesn\’t necessary means you have done anything wrong and it doesn\’t need a hearing because Rule 25 of the constitution of ANC talks about the Discipline and it clarifies the purpose of having a hearing and the ANC further clarifies when a person can be recalled and what must be done in that process. ANC can recall you for strategic reasons besides those of being alleged to have done a wrong thing and powers lies within the NEC which is the highest decision making body in between Congresses and the unfortunate part is that the Constitution of ANC says so and if we want to change it we\’ll do that in the next congress and that\’s the unfortunate part.
I am further calling on south African people ukuba bathobe amaphaphu everything is going to be fine sooner than we have expected.
Amandla!!!!
ANC = Actually, No-one Cares!
Makosi! Traitor! (amen, comrade, amen)
i feel sorry for these ANC Bloggers who think people will stay in the party just because it is ANC. they are underestimating and insulting the intelligence of the people of the nation. even an illiterate person can see that the party is not at all interested in those who voted them into power.
ANC = All New Calamity?
i think the person in this blog who refers to himself or herself as \”who gives a f..\” should rather go play outside and leave the blogging for their kids, they would probably have something more to contribute.. anyway, getting back to our politics, current decisions are not based on reason and intelligence but on personal power struggles and leaders fighting to get the biggest piece of the pie, or the most gravy in the train..
ANC = Another National Corruption?
Who Gives a Fu – can’t you go outside and play with other kids? can’t you see we are busy?
ANC = Ask No Cuestions? (Sorry, standards are slipping in accordance to educational policy)
Uboginya nokuba kuya krakra Mama its not nice to many poeple; ungaqumbi uqalekise. Masithembe ukuba kusokwehla izibilini noko uyakuyinjonga ngolunye uhlobo yonke le nyewe. This is too drastic to be taken when sm1 is reacting.
MICKY!!! You racist, colonialist naysayer you. Welcome to the club!
ANC = All Nimwit Comrades?
when the judge indicted shaik he said must have had a corrupt relationship with Zuma. Did the Zuma camp ask for Zuma to Explain his relationship with Shaik? No.Thabo Fired Zuma. The Zuma Camp freaked out. When Judge Nicholson
provided his verdict he said Thabo must have known abt the dealing in the NPA.The Zuma Camp fired Mbeki. Was it not revenge?
Thabo made some mistakes yes, but i will not support a person who will also need an explaining to do abt his actions, A person who can’t call his dogs to order when they affect other ppl with rabies.
Never !!!!! ahoy with the New Party….100%
bee bandit – finally, someone from inside the ANC who sees the situation as it is. This is what a lot of bloggers have been trying to say for a while. Nowhere else in the world do ruling parties act like trigger-happy gunslingers. Unfortunately, those of us who have voiced our opinions have been labelled racist, colonialist naysayers.
Where else in the world do you have a leader of an organisation running around spewing hate speech and threatening to kill people who oppose his leader? This is a guy who the youth of our country look up to. What sort of message are the senior leadership sending out to the youth – It’s OK to threaten people’s lives if it is in the name of the cause?
Oh no, I’ve probably made myself a soft target now.
ANC = Anarchy Notion Conscripts?
i don’t understand how you people can’t be disgusted with the current state of affairs within the ANC.
- there are mature and civilized ways to defend and support a fellow cde
- public perception should be taken into consideration when dealing with internal party feuds (fist fights,rock throwing, gunslingers at party meetings?)
- blinded loyalty to an individual is dangerous and often leads to being vindictive and subjective thinking (willing to murder people for a fellow cde? – are you loyal to the party or the individual?)
- when senior cadres don’t condemn these irresponsible chants from younger cadres – shouldn’t we question the level of principles within the organisation?
- why is everyone who criticize weaknesses of new leadership being labeled counter-revolutionary?
i have always been loyal to the movement, but f&ck it now im not happy with this new direction – mainly because it is not inclusive it’s an eye for an eye BS
everyone has lost logic – decisions are based on vengence
ANC = Atrocious Nonsensical Clowns?
ANC = Absolutely No Clue?
I have a feeling that JZ has less supporters out there than he imagines. Malema is doing a good job of ostracising a large portion of the population.
Anti National Constitution Party – good one Opstoker.
Why is it that I get the impression that most of those who blog on this site in favour of Zuma are semi-literate?
Marx said, “Better fewer but better.” Stalin and Pol Pot took him at his word, and decided to decimate the intelligentsia of their countries. I see lots of finger-wagging Stalins in the making.
In case you can’t do arithmetic, in a free election the (arguable) principle doesn’t hold water. Next year, I predict the Anti National Constitution Party will struggle for its 50% 1.
Like Zuma did, better pin your hopes on on the people than pinning your hopes on the power of Capital. The people have defended Zuma and defeated the power of Capital on many occasions.
The 2005 ANC National General Council, was the first on the row of the poeople’s victories over Capital, the acpuital of Zuma on all charges in the rape case was second, case struck off the court roll a third, Polokwane was fourth and fifth was the Pietermaritzburg High Court Judgement by Nicholson and the recall was just a cherry on top.
History has a way of repeating itself, and basing Decisions on Judgement inferences was not new in SA politics. Those calling for a breakaway party were never true cadres of the movement in the first place, they have always been using the ANC membership to amass themselves with the loot resources of state and to persue their individual carreers.
Mluleki George was a Bassboyi at the Greenacres construction company, ask those who were exploited in that company about Mluleki’s role and contribution in oppressing workers and the poor. He was a member of the Unity Movement popularly known for a history in assisting the West in suppressing the African Liberation movements including the ANC
Politics is taking over our lives, we should have the confidence to live and allow those that have been appointed in power to lead us CORRECTLY! Let us as the people continue to enjoy the beauty of our country and the opportunities that are afforded to us. For those that have read the book- The State of Africa- need i say more, for those that worry about the future, read this book, it is a real eye opener. Politicians who say they will help the poor, but when they come into power, the money, the glory and etc, go straight to their heads, they forget about those on the ground who voted them in, what happens to the money- the poor never see it!
Zabuy’inkomo mambeki
I always remember what Castro said when mambeki said Luthuli house must be closed because Cde TM was defeated in Limpopo. It will not come as a suprise to us that other people will think of creating another pop-eye structure for fighting their careers because now adays some of the people who leave the ANC do that for career purposes such careerists.
I want therefore to say to those who think of creating another structure “Good luck” but remember that ANC will not die because of such structures. ANC is the only alternative to South African people and come 2009 we must vote for ANC for the continuation of a better life for all.
Remember that some of the people who are thinking of leaving ANC because another Cadre have been recalled are not disciplined enough and to us it’s not a problem. One thing that South African people and ANc members must remember what Marx said “Better fewer but better”.
The Marx quote illustrates one thing that people who are united for a particular vision and dedicated to get it must not worry if there are those who are confused and are ill-discipline who wants to move out because a house full of fools does not provide assistance and i trust all Cdes of ANC are not fools so they won’t create their organization and if they do they never deserved to be ANC members.
An injury to one is an injury to all, inxeba lendoda alihlekwa, bafuna sikhonkothe sonke ngoku elaxesha ngozisu zikhulu mfondini, hayi man bangasisokolisi, Mam Mbeki we all know inimba torho askiss makhulu may God be with you and guide you along your way, we all respect our fellow so called President but let it be akhonto man kwakunje nakwabanye. It is well with my soul no matter what happens to who when I don’t care
Almost there mozet.
Z and yolanda
You are exactly what this country needs:People that can think clearly and not b led by THE MEDIA AND EMOTIONS.B4 all this nonsense MAMBEKI has never spoken to the media or anybody else about her SON,HE NEVER EVEN VISITED HER now that things aren’t going his way she is her mother.Lihlazo kuthi MAXHOSA INDODA ELWELWA AMADABI AYO NGUNINA.
To be honest two thirds majority is not good for a healthy democracy. Mbeki admin is a testimonial.
We must blame ourselves for giving a president’s office too much power = elect dep pres, premiers, deny aids,sack Zuma/Madlala whilst keeping deadwood ministers, sign arms deal, Ginwala senseless commission etc etc
But as a statesman, Mbeki is intelligent
It is the best thing that can happen in our nation. The ANC should be split and their dominance destroyed. We dont need another ZANU PF in Africa.
Exactly that Yolanda! I repeat “The BEE Bandits”
I still think it is a silly idea, no offence to MamBheki, that is for Mluleki George. Somebody help me I sometimes get confused, isnt Mluleki George the same guy who was fighting the removal on ex Premier Balindlela?? People in the EC had a few names for this guy and his kind of management style.
The only thing I can tell you for free, it will be the party of the Black SA elite, ask me then again how did they all get so very, very rich???? Makes you think.
I hope they all remember NO MORE floor crossing….
puzzles me as to why you keep on interviewing this old gogo who has certainly lost count of her marbles and believes just like his son, that no one is capable of leading the country and the ANC except his son. Mbeki is not indispensable and you will certainly see the proof in the coming months.
Mrs. Mbeki is speaking like any other parents maybe when the shock has worn out on her….she’ll come to her senses.
Please, please, please give us a viable option to the present “Anti National Constitution” hooligan leadership – just five to ten guys with the necessary political stature and the cojones to say, “Here’s an alternative.” Go for it, Lekota, Shilowa, George – a New African Congress, in an electoral pact with UDM, IFP, DA (bite the bullet, guys), AZAPO and ID, would give these cynical opportunist Brutuses the fright of their lives. The people are gatvol.
Jan this new breed of policians makes me seek to the stomach. They’re so unpredictable and elusive to rational analysis
Hehehe…Mozet, 10/10 for that funny last comment.
How about “The BEE Bandits”…
It will be called CNA as way of retaliation/retribution thereby (seeking to)confusing the electorate.
Holomisa once tried it
The maybe there will be less stabbings and shootings at ANC meetings haha what a joke!
We must expect that reaction from SOME parents. But I don’t think Mbeki is that naive politically.
In a way Mbeki engineered his downfall for his intrasigency.
However he should have allowed to complete his term…unless the PEC can convince us otherwise.
Yes the new party to contest next year’s election is the only sure way to stop the madness otherwise armchair moaning and groaning wont stop the rot and hooliganism which is certain to grow in leaps and bounds at the rate the Malema led mob is doing.Phambil with a new party !Phambili!