The+vultures+circle,+Gleason+Torque




 * Gleason Torque, Johannesburg, 05 September 2005**

THE TORQUE COLUMN
=**The vultures circle**=

There is only one good reason for any member of the African National Congress (ANC) to support President Thabo Mbeki’s call for an Alliance- constituted Commission of Inquiry into “the alleged political conspiracy against Deputy President [Jacob] Zuma.” That must be to discover the nature of the conspiracy and whether Mbeki is himself involved in it.

As Mbeki put it in his letter to ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe: “I am informed that some within our broad movement…are convinced that as President of the ANC and the Republic, I occupy the leading position in the political onslaught against Zuma…[and that] I am opposed to Comrade Zuma becoming President of the ANC and the Republic.”

Those stories have been going around for years – ever since, in fact, Mbeki made certain those who might have constituted centres of opposition to him (read Ramaphosa, Sexwale, Phosa) were rudely neutralised.

Presuming this Commission of Inquiry ever gets off the ground, there are any number of issues that need to be addressed. Who will set its terms of reference? Who will be the Commissioners? Will it be possible for the goal posts to be changed mid-way through the hearings?

And – most important – if this Commission is to carry any authority and convey genuine integrity, its hearings must be open to the public. The majority of this country’s voters support the ANC. They are incontrovertibly entitled to know what is going on inside the party of their choice. The proceedings should be aired fully on e.tv (not, God help us, on the SABC’s channels).

The suggestion made by Mbeki that this Inquiry should be held in camera is both outrageous and intellectually impoverished. All the public will be fed is a load of carefully manipulated codswallop. A closed inquiry is diametrically opposed to the idea of an open society. It will serve no good because no one will believe that the truth has emerged from it.

In fact, anyone with information germane to the issues must be able to present evidence, and do so publicly. Not merely on the conspiracy but also on who has benefited inappropriately since the ANC came to power. Let Patricia de Lisle tell the country exactly what she knows about the arms deal, let Jurgen Kögel tell us about the nature of the financial advisory services he provided to senior ANC personnel.

Bulelani Ngcuka must be asked to explain the undeniable selective investigations run by the national prosecuting authority and the Scorpions during his tenure as national director of public prosecutions – however “innocent” these might have been. And he must be asked why he abused the formidable powers at his disposal, and the identities of those for whom he acted must be unambiguously exposed.

The point about all this is that, if the Inquiry is to be useful, it must show the ANC adheres to its demands that everyone else must behave according to the dictates of transparency and openness.

The truth of the matter – I suspect – is that this war is less about Zuma than it is about the struggle between those who continue to believe in the ANC’s decades-long commitment to a social democratic order and those who make up the new elitists, the rich and powerful who have learnt well how to make use of the levers of State power.

The elitist “crews” waging this battle are less concerned with Mbeki and the current government than they are with who will be the boss post-Mbeki. It is exactly this that lies at the heart of this blood-letting.

When the ANC’s National Executive Committee meets later this week, it will need to be very careful and very astute. And, if it goes along with Mbeki’s proposal, it must make sure that this Inquiry must not be limited to washing the ANC’s dirty linen in public – it must be a thorough dry cleaning.


 * David Gleason**


 * From: http://www.gleasontorque.com/gleasonTorque.co.za/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArID=147