Former president Thabo Mbeki has dismissed claims made by leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Julius Malema that he was plotting with former spy boss Arthur Fraser to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Malema made the allegations about Mbeki without providing any evidence. He said Mbeki was working with Fraser when he opened a criminal case in June about a crime that happened at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.
According to Mbeki, the intention is to deepen divisions within the ANC and frustrate its efforts of renewal, a process in which Julius Malema is involved.
The Thabo Mbeki Foundation said: “Former president Mbeki rejects Mr Malema’s scuttlebutt with the contempt it deserves,” said Siyabulela Gebe, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation spokesperson.
“He is certain that it originates from the old apartheid intelligence machinery and it is intended to deepen divisions within the ANC and to frustrate efforts towards the organisation’s renewal.”
Malema claimed that Mbeki was keen on seeing Ramaphosa fall and looking at making a comeback to lead the ANC. He denied that opposition political parties were joining in ANC factional battles by calling for Ramaphosa’s removal through a motion of no confidence.
Malema said the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) group which is strongly aligned with former president Jacob Zuma was not behind the efforts to remove Ramaphosa but rather Arthur Fraser and Thabo Mbeki were.
“RET forces of the ANC have never in jubilation celebrated Fraser. They have never declared Fraser a hero and used Phala Phala as a way of decampaigning the president. That is why it was difficult to raise it in the policy conference of the ANC because it was not their initiative,” said Malema.
“They are asking themselves whose agenda Fraser is driving. The answer is, Fraser is with president Mbeki in the unseating of president Ramaphosa. Mbeki says he is still disgruntled for not finishing his term. Fraser is working with Mbeki and not the RET forces,” he added
Source: News24, Times Live, The Citizen, Business Day, image from Times Live: Thapelo Morebudi