Mbeki's Downfall Was Inevitable?

Renown journalist John Pilger gives his slant to the recent downfall of South African President Thabo Mbeki suggesting that it was a predictable as the recent collapse of Wall Street. Curiously, since much of the media coverage of Mbeki's fall has centered on his political tussle with Jacob Zuma, Pilger puts the reason squarely on Mbeki's economic performance.

"Thabo Mbeki's downfall is no more than the downfall of a failed economic system that enriched the few and dumped the poor."

Pilger points out that Mbeki took over a government hamstrung my "secret" agreements with white apartheid era power brokers.

"In September [of 1985] a group led by Gavin Relly, chair of the Anglo American Corporation, met Oliver Tambo, the ANC president, and other resistance officials in Zambia. Their urgent message was that a "transition" from apartheid to a black-governed liberal democracy was possible only if "order" and "stability" were guaranteed. These were euphemisms for a "free market" state where social justice would not be a priority."

According to Pilger, the end of apartheid occurred because moderates such as Oliver Tambo, Govan Mbeki, and Nelson Mandela agreed to follow a capitalistic path despite the ANC's pledge to nationalize mines and industries.

"Secret meetings between the ANC and prominent members of the Afrikaner elite followed at a stately home, Mells Park House, in England. The prime movers were those who had underpinned and profited from apartheid.

Black South Africans all too quickly felt the inevitable outcome of the deal.

"Between 1995 and 2000 the majority of South Africans fell deeper into poverty. When the gap between wealthy whites and newly enriched blacks began to close, the gulf between the black "middle class" and the majority widened as never before."

Even the ANC's much vaunted Black Economic Empowerment, BEE, initiative has proved to be a front for the nefarious dealings of a new Black elite.

"[B]lack capitalists proved they could be every bit as ruthless as their former white masters in labour relations, cronyism and the pursuit of profit, hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost in mergers and "restructuring".

Pilger notes that Mbeki's stance on HIV/Aids and his political aloofness added to his ultimate demise, but that "it was the premeditated ANC economic and social catastrophe that saw him off."

You can read the whole article on the Mail and Guardian website.