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The downfall of Mbeki: The hidden truth

JOHN PILGER: COMMENT - Oct 07 2008 00:00

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The political rupture in South Africa is being presented in the outside world as the personal tragedy and humiliation of one man, Thabo Mbeki. It is reminiscent of the beatification of Nelson Mandela at the death of apartheid.

This is not to diminish the power of personalities, but their importance is often as a distraction from the historical forces they serve and manage. Frantz Fanon had this in mind when, in The Wretched of the Earth, he described the "historic mission" of much of Africa's post-colonial ruling class as "that of intermediary [whose] mission has nothing to do with transforming the nation: it consists, prosaically, of being the transmission line between the nation and a capitalism, rampant though camouflaged".

Mbeki's fall and the collapse of Wall Street are concurrent and related events, as they were predictable. Glimpse back to 1985 when the Johannesburg stock market crashed and the apartheid regime defaulted on its mounting debt and the chieftains of South African capital took fright.

In September that year 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.

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 -- such as the British mining giant, Consolidated Goldfields, which picked up the bill for the vintage wines and malt whisky scoffed around the fireplace at Mells Park House. Their aim was that of the Pretoria regime -- to split the ANC between the mostly exiled "moderates" they could "do business with" (Tambo and Mbeki and Mandela) and the majority who made up the UDF and were resisting in the townships.

The matter was urgent. When FW de Klerk came to power in 1989, capital was haemorrhaging at such a rate that the country's foreign reserves would barely cover five weeks of imports. Declassified files I have seen in Washington leave little doubt that De Klerk was on notice to rescue capitalism in South Africa. He could not achieve this without a compliant ANC.

Having backed the ANC's pledge to take over the mines and other monopoly industries -- "a change or modification of our views in this regard is inconceivable" -- Nelson Mandela spoke with a different voice on his first triumphant travels abroad. "The ANC," he said in New York, "will reintroduce the market to South Africa". It was as though the deal was that whites would retain economic control in exchange for black majority rule: the "crown of political power" for the "jewel of the South African economy", as Ali Mazrui put it.

When, in 1997, I told Mbeki how a black businessman had described himself as "the ham in a white sandwich", he laughed in agreement, then lauded the "historic compromise", which others were calling a betrayal. But it was De Klerk who was more to the point. I put it to him that he and his fellow whites had got what they wanted and that for the majority the poverty had not changed. "Isn't that the continuation of apartheid by other means?" I asked. Smiling through a cloud of cigarette smoke, he replied: "You must understand, we've achieved a broad consensus on many things now."

Thabo Mbeki's downfall is no more than the downfall of a failed economic system that enriched the few and dumped the poor. The ANC "neoliberals" seemed at times ashamed that South Africa was, in so many ways, a Third-World country. "We seek to establish," said Trevor Manuel, "an environment in which winners flourish." Boasting a deficit so low it had fallen to the level of European economies, he and his fellow "moderates" turned away from the social economy the majority of South Africans desperately wanted and needed. They inhaled the hot air of corporate-speak.

CONTINUES BELOW

They listened to the World Bank and the IMF and soon they were being invited to the top table at the Davos Economic Forum and to G8 meetings, where their "macroeconomic achievements" were lauded as a model. In 2001 George Soros put it rather more bluntly. "South Africa," he said, "is now in the hands of international capital."

Public services fell in behind privatisation and low inflation presided over low wages and high unemployment, known as "labour flexibility". According to the ANC the wealth generated by a new black business class, the waBenzi, would "trickle down".

The opposite happened. As black 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".

Ordinary people retreated to the "informal economy". 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.

In 1996 the office of the reconstruction and development programme was quietly closed down, marking the end of the ANC's "solemn pledge" and "unbreakable promise". Two years later the United Nations Development Programme described the replacement, Gear, as basically "no different" from the economic strategy of the apartheid regime in the 1980s.

There was something surreal about this. Was this a country of Harvard-trained technocrats breaking open the bubbly at the latest credit rating from Duff & Phelps in New York? Or was it a country of deeply impoverished men, women and children without clean water and sanitation, whose infinite resource was being repressed and wasted yet again?

The questions were an embarrassment as the ANC government endorsed the apartheid regime's agreement to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which effectively surrendered economic independence and repaid the $25-billion of apartheid-era inherited foreign debt. Incredibly, Manuel even allowed South Africa's biggest companies to flee their financial home and set up in London.

Certainly, Mbeki speeded his own political demise with his strictures on HIV/Aids and his famous aloofness and isolation. But it was the premeditated ANC economic and social catastrophe that saw him off.

For further proof look to the United States today and the smoking ruin of the "neoliberalism" model so cherished by the ANC's governors. And beware those successors of Mbeki now claiming that, unlike him, they have the people's interests at heart. And mark if or when they continue the same divisive policies. South Africa deserves better. -- © John Pilger.com

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Comments

That SA is in sole control of its destiny has not been the reality for a long time.

That SA must shape its destiny within the reality granted to it, is.

Mbeki (and Manuel) has understood this clearly even if the majority of ANC supporters and South Africans still don't.

Pilger's article dwells too much on absolutes. The associated imputation of collusion with De Klerk is specious.

James Edwards on October 6, 2008, 1:26 pm

It incenses a deep-red socialist like Pilger that his favourite credo is a profoundly-defeated one and that, even in their current crisis, the capitalists always have ways and means of overcoming the challeges they face. Pilger is a last-generation parody every bit as outre as flower-children.

Jon Low on October 7, 2008, 12:25 am

John as always cuts through the bullshit. Let's see if Zuma is not just more of teh same business as usual. I hope not

Isabella Van der Westhuizem on October 7, 2008, 5:20 am

It's time for the capitalists and the bourgeois to face the bitter truth - life has not changed much for many of the black people since the advent of democracy. This is not just communist ranting, it's a sad reality that some sections of our society, especially white, pretend doesn't exist.

When the government recognised the need for social justice and announced that they intend to pursue programmes such as AA, BEE and employment equity; this section of our society was up in arms. It's the same people who complain incessantly about crime and are emmigrating to Australia faster than they can say "goodbye".

This 'Great Canyon' between the rich and the poor must be narrowed if we are to prevent an open revolt of the marginalised masses. Zimbabwe was proof enough that the white minority cannot have their cake and eat it. Unless they grant certain concessions, planes to Sydney and London are likely to get fuller and fuller.

Sicelo Hlatshwayo on October 7, 2008, 7:55 am

Mbeki's downfall was a result of numerous matters that he himself avoided to aproach and deal with,opting to forge forward with his international matters.I do understand however that the country has a responsibility for the africa peace and health stability but i think our former president should have paid more attention to matters of his country and himself.He should have engaged more with his fellow comrades,the community in S.A and all cases partaining to his involvement and duties.Our Thabo Mbeki failed himself and his country because he did not simply pay attention enough to his country's needs.Now Motlanthe must be very careful and remain loyal and humble to service delivery in his country so we can come to avoid previous situations and resulting in him facing a simmilar if not harsher fall that ThaboMbeki.

Alfred Makomoto on October 7, 2008, 8:00 am

The 'capitalist conspiracy' is responsible for all of Africa's woes, it seems. Hmmmmm...

How much money have the governments of capitalist countries poured into Africa since 1960?

How many Peace Corps, Oxfam, DANIDA, CIDA, and UN development efforts have been funded by the morally bankrupt capitalist countries?

Where does the money come from that is used to finance South Africa's social 'upliftment' programmes?

And, more importantly, who is accountable when those funds are un-spent, mis-spent, over-spent, or just plain 'disappear'?

Who is accountable for the lost hundreds of millions of Rands that never reach the people they were intended to help?

John Pilger cannot be so naive after all his years in Africa. He knows full well that the Marxist regimes that have dominated Africa for 50 or so years have enriched themselves at the expense of their huge --and ever growing--populations who are condemned to either live in squalor or join those that masquerade as 'revolutionaries' in every African nation--including South Africa.

Has the ANC betrayed the people? YES. But it did so by squandering R40 billion on a spurious 'arms deal' (arms scam, is more like it). HOW MANY PEOPLE COULD HAVE BEEN HOUSED WITH THAT MONEY? HOW MANY NEW CLINICS AND HOSPITALS COULD HAVE BEEN BUILT AND STAFFED WITH THAT MONEY?

Then, there are the billions of rand that have been paid to 'executives' like those at Eskom for NOT doing their jobs. HOW MANY NEW SCHOOLS COULD HAVE BEEN BUILT AND EQUIPPED WITH THAT MONEY? HOW MANY NEW TEACHERS AND DOCTORS AND NURSES TRAINED?

And then there are the billions that have been looted from the nation's pension funds!

The problem is not a conspiracy of capitalists---much as I loathe many of them such as the lot who produced the currenr global crisis. The problem is THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CORRUPT!

The problem is gross governmental negligence coupled with a pervasive venal incompetence, in other words CRONYISM.

The problem is the ANC that hides behind 'revolutionary' rhetoric and the callously indifferent 'collective' so that corrupt leaders can go on enriching themselves at the expense of the 'wretched'.

The problem is the 'conspiracy' of the 'kleptocracy', the 'idiocracy', and the 'mediocracy' which defines ANC rule.

The problem is the absence of a competent, transparent, committed opposition party that can force the ANC to be accountable for its disastrous handling of the resources---human as well as material !-- that the capitalist economic policy provided to it over the past 14 years.

on October 7, 2008, 8:45 am

Pilger

First, find some moral high-ground
Then, turn on the gas
add something wholly truthful, but avoid adding the whole truth
drop in some names and a handful of dates
add a soupcon of secret knowledge
prepare in a dead pan.
Stir.

Repeatedly.

Serve cold

...now: light the gas...

phill doran on October 7, 2008, 8:49 am

It's easy to dismiss John as "just another disgruntled socialist". But not being an ideologue myself, I measure what he says by what I have seen: abject poverty, the ravages of HIV, people who grow so wealthy without doing a day's work that it makes you dizzy, a collapsed education system, no health facilities, rampant corruption by the elite, white and black, with little consequence, high crime levels, ten years of enormous growth in white wealth and fake AA policies that only reward those who are compliant. Against this backgroung, I will not argue against John Pilger. Let's at least give people a health system and education and leave the rest to them. As things stand now, they have no chance.

xx xx on October 7, 2008, 9:02 am

I'm far from a laissez faire capitalist but the analogies in this article are largely wishful thinking. To claim that Mbeki's demise has fundamentally to do with the GEAR project is just stupid; an attempt to impose an interpretation onto events the author favours. Pilger is right to highlight the outrageous contrasts and the short-sighted obsession with international capital but that really is a separate article (and not exactly something that hasn't been said before)

S M on October 7, 2008, 9:20 am

All I can say is Amen! to Delia Riordan's comment.

JP

Kalahari Matahari on October 7, 2008, 10:00 am

Thank god for John Pilger, were it not for him all of us natives from the far flung 'new country' would have no way of understanding our own reality. His supreme ability to read between the lines of international capital markets and decode what the rest of us are blind to, provides solace where there is none. Bravo John, you are our true north.

Now for those pesky Free masons and the Illuminati...

frank nnete on October 7, 2008, 10:02 am

Lol, Let me also add this item to your shopping basket:

* he also shielded a tyrant in Burma, Iran, and an aging one nextdoor, Mad Bob, and now we're sitting with a country (which has been known for agric production) desperately fighting for political, social, international, environmental and economic survival.
Thanks to the man in Subject...

He will remain condemned for his inactions...

on October 7, 2008, 10:28 am

As a member of an active NPO servicing the needs of three disadvantaged communities in the western cape, for R250,000 we established a trauma room at the local police station, a garden program with over 200 gardens, a self sustainable market garden, an Early Childhood Development Center (ECD) with over 60 children registered, built a mini soccer and net ball park for young children and developed a significant litter clean program. Considering that the new dining room at Parliament will cost R600 million plus, divide that by the figure R250,000, which we spent mostly from private donors, and the same could be done in over 2,000 communities. And after 19 months operating and maintaining the ECD, we still have no government help.

This is how the ANC has failed and will continue to fail under its new leadership. My experience is that most South Africans don't care about anyone but themselves, and those who do fight a constant uphill battle.

solinus jolliffe on October 7, 2008, 10:44 am

Auberon Waugh after reading one of John Pilger's articles, coined the verb "to pilger", meaning "to present information in a sensationalist manner to reach a foregone conclusion".

Curious that the conspirators (who Pilger claim secretly control SA's future) are declasifying their files. Not how conspiracies worked in my day!

Julian Essenhigh on October 7, 2008, 12:41 pm

The question I always ask is - In Africa, does it matter - does anyone matter other than those who are not in service, but in power?

Spencer Courtis on October 7, 2008, 12:56 pm

finally someone sees what we (0rdinary citizenss)have always been saying. Thumps up John. this is not a question of whether people follow Jacob Zuma or Mbeki but its about what write for the poor people of this country. what's the point of having a leader that doesn't lead his people? A leader that doesn't put his people before his own interest, that's an aportunist. Mbeki had all the power of influence so if he'd focused more on his people ( whom by the way put him to power, he could have made a lot of difference. I know my capitalists people will cry foul here because they have much to loose but for a change, lets think about the majority of poor SA people than just a few rich people who cruelty benefited from this system. it's a hard truth to learn that while most of us thought we were liberated from the oppression, we entered another oppression, only this from our own leaders who claim to have fought for us.

Bongani Mpanza on October 7, 2008, 1:15 pm

In Australia the term pilgerism means the following: Pilgerism: [pil-jer-ism] n. (as opposed to journalism), tool used by a crusading propagandist. It manipulates public opinion by offering the unsuspecting public half-truths selectively, presenting facts out of context to suit one’s distorted view of reality.
It is in common usage about journalists who don't let facts get in the way of a story and is derived from the writings of John Pilger.

Mike Hogan on October 7, 2008, 1:59 pm

What Rose did on Titanic was to close her eyes and to simply trust Jack. What Jack told her is not clear, but most probably it sounded like the statement in the column above:"Tabo Mbeki's downfall is no more than the downfall of an economic system ..."

Nemu Puka on October 7, 2008, 2:00 pm

Politics and economics are inextricably linked and Pilger is, as usual, spot on with this statement:

"In 1996, the office of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was quietly closed down, marking the end of the ANC’s “solemn pledge” and “unbreakable promise” to put the majority first. Two years later, the United Nations Development Programme described the replacement, GEAR, as basically “no different” from the economic strategy of the apartheid regime in the 1980s."

However, linking national disquiet at established process, internal coups d'etat, and the abuse by neoliberal internationalists of the wabenzi is short-sighted. Yes, we mourn Thabo's ouster and fear government by an untested SACP-dominated NEC that long ago surrendered its socio-economic compass. But surely the demise of Washington's proxies (though they articulated -- rather than practiced -- more vocally the aspirations of the Freedom Charter) is greater cause for hope than despair?

Or is Pilger disingenuously, and illogically, extrapolating disaster from the demise of those who would bring it about by perpetuating GEAR?

Bar the paragraph quoted above, Pilger offers little of substance, dressing the quoted betrayal in the social mood of the political moment or event (the De Klerk story is wonderful) -- a mood at odds with where we stand, i.e. closer to a return to the RDP than we could have hoped for a few short weeks ago.

Has he no faith in Pallo Jordan, Jeremy Cronin, Blade Nzimande et al? Or does he believe Trevor and Tito will carry the day?

Mike Golby on October 7, 2008, 2:15 pm

"faith in Pallo Jordan....."? His latest 'achievement' is the destruction of the National Library in Pretoria!

Bernard Hellberg on October 7, 2008, 3:58 pm

good riddance to mbeki and south africa, you reap what you soe! dont come to europe for handouts

andrew kelly on October 7, 2008, 6:04 pm

Reading John Pilger's comments reminds me of Mao Zedong, that committed socialist, comments about Richard Nixon: "I like dealing with right-wingers - they say what they really mean. Left-wingers always say one thing and mean something completely different". Pilger is living proof of this.

Mark Robertson on October 7, 2008, 7:14 pm

It seems you can write this type of article about almost any African nation and just change a few names... There is a lot of truth in the words but not all of it - there is a lot of feeling in the words but not all of it.. and there is a lot of bitterness in the words but again not all of it either...

Mike Cranfield on October 7, 2008, 8:59 pm

John Pilger has been spot on. Stings like a bee especially to those who are in denial like Mbeki himself. To understand this article in its entirety, I urge you all to obtain a copy of John Pilger's book: "Freedom Next Time" launched in 2006, and read the chapter: "Apartheid Did Not Die."

For too long we've ignored the fact that we have a majority in this country that is living in abject poverty, who are citizens like us, and that they also have a right to a "better life for all" as promised by Mandela, Mbeki, etc.

It makes no sense bragging about our "ficticious" economic boom, GDP, rising Middle Class, etc, when more and more people, especially children, are going to sleep at night without food.

Capitalism has been the winner of the day. The recent US Bail Out plan was the proof in the pudding with regards to this. The BIG Question is: "Had these banks made a US$ 700 Billion profit, would they have shared it with the tax payers?"

The recent price fixing scandals locally is just a mere tip of the mammoth ice berg of irregular exploitative capitalist practices. Fact is nobody but nobody, with the exception of Corporate South Africa who have truly benefitted from the demise of apartheid, especially under Mbeki's rule.

As for the likes of Mike Hogan, Phill Doran, James Edwards and company, who appear to be "Mbeki type" denialists, running down or insulting John Pilger won't make reality and the ugly truth go away.

Mustafa Moosa Darsot on October 7, 2008, 11:31 pm

Mustafa,

I assume i fall within the,'(...)and company' part of your axis of evil. For the record i've read Pilger's 'insights'. The trouble with the now sexy socialist argument is that it argues for an alternative to the status quo without really giving us the specifics of such alternative/s.

As it is the SA economy cannot be described as 'pure' by any measure. But your comment that really got me miffed is that nobody has benefitted from the end of Apartheid. Really?!

The next time you want to use the poor to punctuate your points-why dont you first come and see and talk to people in our communities and THEN comment...

frank nnete on October 8, 2008, 12:25 pm

Frank Nnete, I am not short of anything in life. For your info, I work with the poor on a daily basis in South Africa, other parts of Africa and Asia. After I read Pilger's book, I personally drove around the country to assess first hand about what he wrote, and I affirm it to be the truth and sad reality. Perhaps you should do the same. Remember for every one community that has been uplifted, twenty others are ignored, and so on...

Mustafa Moosa Darsot on October 8, 2008, 10:29 pm

Pilger, you forgot to mention good fashioned greed... the following from an underground publication..."varyinations" sums it up nicely I think...

"The revolution has become a babble
by fat tongues toasting the banquet of the fight.
In the end men who can deafen the rabble
defend their right to go blind in the limelight.

Tambo’s party got lost in the afterparty apathy
After apartheid the Charter got un-chartered,
After the gulping, licking, sweet-eating-hearty
at the struggle trough - the flavour drowned - martyred.

Over pots of victory too many hands shook.
Azania’s spoils of war caused constipation.
When too many backslaps and backhands spoil the cook,
the brew for the masses gets finished in the kitchen."

oshen

oshen jetty on October 10, 2008, 7:50 am

"....According to the ANC the wealth generated by a new black business class, the waBenzi, would "trickle down".
The opposite happened. As black 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"....."

The problem of Africa and so many third world economies is overwhelming indiscipline and monumental greed and corruption, the so called ruthlessness, NOT capitalism. There is no respect for the rule of law and ascension to public office is seen as an opportunity for self enrichment at the expense of service to the people who voted to put you there. Rogue capitalists like Soros and the Bush neo-cons, who can't practice in America what they do in Africa, simply take advantage of opportunities presented by unpatriotic African leaders. So what else is new? The same vices are still there even in socialist/communist countries with poor leadership. Look at Angola or Venezuela, how much better off are they in spite of their natural wealth? They have teeming millions of poor but still can accomodate dollar billionaires.
Mr Pilger, please don't be naive. If capitalism works in Australia, why not in Africa which has similar natural wealth? It is a question of getting principled, focused leadership, which is easier said than done in Africa.

Tony Gathungu on October 11, 2008, 11:55 am

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Wooing capital: Thabo Mbeki and Tony Blair at the World Economic Forum in Davos. (Photograph: Yoshiko Kusano)

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