Mbeki slams MK Party and his successor Jacob Zuma

so former ANC president tabom Bei has lambasted the um party and his successor Jacob Zuma for saying that he's still a member of thec but is campaigning for this newly formed MK party Bei was commenting on the DA's uh letter requesting America and other Western countries to observe elections in South Africa all these comments he made while speaking to the sabc news the former president also mentioned that he will campaign for thec on international issues Bei also touched on the situation in Sagal and Haiti take a listen Mr President you spoke about the governing party and issues related to governing party it's election time what are the chances in terms of the performance of the governing party uh in the coming elections what's what's your view what's your assessment no I I I don't know can I don't know if I can answer that question S I really don't know I mean the uh uh the I know the leadership of the a I'm talking about the national executive committee are very mindful of the fact that two facts one of them that in terms of the internal research is done by themselves by the an itself those researches communicate a message about the some of the negative feelings of the population towards some of the things that the a is doing so I think it's very sensitive to the fact that there's a particular attitudes that that the voters have to towards ANC so that as they campaign they're aware of that plus this other reality was that since 2009 those elections all elections since then the numbers of people voting for The have been declining up to 2021 local government elections I'm saying that leadership is aware of that so the challenge to therefore to respond to the population in a manner that's convincing to the population I think the leadership is very very much aware of this are you going to campaign so a member of thec as a member of the ANC of course as part of the obligation on members of thec we have to make our own contribution to engage the population the MK the new party your former uh Deputy now campaigning for Mk but he's still a member of thec yes I mean I think that's a that's not an honest position you cannot say I'm a member of the ANC but I'm going to campaign against thec you can't that's not that's not an honest position he's campaigning against the ANC so uh he has defined himself I think what the leadership of the ANC said earlier that he has defined himself out of thec that is correct I think that's a position that he's taken practically is say that job zum has defined himself out of the ANC and so he's not ANC anymore have you spoken to him as your former fellow comrade former deputy both in thec and in the country to get a sense of why he took this decision no no I haven't spoken to him neither has he spoken to me but I would I would have thought that the decent thing for an ANC person would have been to say if levels of disaffection with thec are so much that I'm going to Rebel that he would have had the Cy to say to me look this is my position but he didn't so but I'm saying as I say but I think practically he has defined himself out of thec let's talk about uh the opposition the da they wrote a letter to the Secretary of State of the United States of America asking the US uh to monitor elections in South Africa they did the same with number of countries in Europe what's your view about that letter and people get invited to a countries and organizations get to invited to monitor elections to observe elections not not by political parties doesn't happen anywhere U we the last elections that I think I I observed were in Nigeria and many people are there from the United States from Europe from everywhere they were all invited via the electoral process if none of the political parties invited those people in in this case I think it's the The Da is making a statement about itself that it doesn't trust TR our own people it doesn't trust our own capacity to handle our own elections and it doesn't trust all of these other people who will come when are invited the people they trust is effectively the white world just that's a statement about the da itself I mean honestly um our electoral commission here has handled elections since 1994 and there's no major complaint that's been made and they've been observed all the time all of this in the EU will be here and everybody will be here but they go out of the way to say no no the white world must come and make sure that it's a statement about the da itself and I think it's a bad statement the Coalition governments um are quite challenging there are polls that are suggesting that after elections we are going to have a coalition government in some provinces some are even predicting that at National level what's your view you have led the government you've led a governing party there was a time where you were not in government in kzn in the Western Cape later you were able to make inroads in those uh provinces what's your view I think the main issue Sophie is not so much for what what kind of governments will be formed after the elections really the critical point is the the kind of the political establishment in South Africa all of these various parties and so on together what do we want to make of South Africa whoever is governing they said the country is faced with too many challenges the economy is very depressed levels of unemployment growing levels of poverty growing all of the negative social things that happen what do these South African Representatives which all of them say we represent the people of South Africa what kind of South Africa do they want I think that is a question that we need to pose to all of the political parties whoever emerges as the winner or loser or whatever whoever becomes a government whether they Coalition or one party whatever there has to be whoever is a government they've got to address certain things about the future of the country so that we take country one step forward I think that's the main challenge not so much whether there will be coalition government will but what will South Africa look like a year after the the elections and I think the political parties whether they form coalitions or whatever need to be committed to a particular perspective and Implement that perspective let's than to international issues as we are about to wrap up Sagal uh you spoke about you engaging president mchis when everybody was scared that senal is descending into k can you take us through your discussions and the issue of the opposition leader who was in jail well I the U some people in the opposition in Sagal came to see me they raised this issue that uh they gave an account of the what what was happening last year in Sagal and I did say to them in which case it's ni I will engage the president makis because it really I'm very very keen that Sagal must sustain its Democratic credentials very very important for not only for senagal for the continent and so I therefore wrote a long letter to the president making that argument in the in the expect in the expectation that once he's read the letter then he would want to talk to me and I was ready to do that so as I was saying that the Ambassador helped sagales ambassador and toor because I communicated through her and indeed communicated with President marisal happily he did not even has to wait to talk to me he then acted in the correct way that he has acted in terms of releasing all of these people including this very popular person Usman Sono ER released him from jail pardoned the whatever the offenses which made entitled him to be country to be eligible so he's running unfortunately for him is only at the two weeks to participate between being released from jail and the elections taking place but at least at least is out there so that it as I was saying to president marisal really we need to allow the senales people to decide who who should become their president and not have people who who can't contest because they're in jail for political reasons and I'm I'm really very very proud of him president marisal the way he has acted to make that indeed Sagal will reaffirm its standing as as one of the guarantors of democracy on the continent the other issue you are going to Rwanda for the thir year commemoration of the genocide sure certainly yes I I will I'll go there there is an invitation from president president kagam and I've been attending I've been attending those commemorations because uh I think that major tragedy the the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 I think it's a it's a big important lesson to all of us as Africans I think it's always very important to have a look at that again to me say it must never happen again and then address all of the conditions in all our countries this thing about uh unity in diversity how do we manage this diversity so that it doesn't end up in a situation where people kill one another the last question Haiti I know that you were very or you are very close to former president arested the situation in hati have you spoken to him recently are you following the developments in hati and what happened no I haven't I I haven't spoken to to president State recently but I maybe I will I will I will have to do that but indeed you right I mean what one is observing from afar is a big tragedy um with the story about the the capital city Port of BR being overrun by these criminal gangs and and so on and one of the things that would the when we worked with president arist before he left heti was the critical importance of a political organization like the mod it was like thec here it was Milas a very very important political organization there with to which president AR still belonged you know one of the biggest townships or areas in BTO Prince is c c Sun City it was the funas that that place was very r with these gangsters but in that same city Sol the part F was very strong so it was able to deal with the what here at one point during the UDF days were called comes you remember the UDF structures they were able to deal with the comes falas was able to deal with the com sources in PTO France in C Sol but it's clear that in the course of time that political formation which was very important in a sense has reeded I don't need somewhere but you need to revive the political structures like that otherwise I think you won't get stability in in the unless you have the strong political parties like falas was genuinely representing the mes of the people

Channel: SABC News

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Id: VYV3Sk4580U

Length: 13min 29sec (809 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024