Mbeki and Ramaphosa’s relationship remains 'comradely cordial'

The relationship between President Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Thabo Mbeki remained “comradely cordial” despite the latter’s ongoing criticisms of both the president and his administration.

This is according to Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, when he was responding to questions from the media on Thursday during a briefing on the president’s upcoming public programme and other issues.

“Look for President Ramaphosa, the relationship with the former president is one that is cordial, or rather call it comradely cordial as well as professional,” Magwenya said.

Mbeki will not attend the convention scheduled to take place at Unisa in Pretoria from Friday to Saturday.

This comes after several foundations withdrew from the Preparatory Task Team for the National Dialogue and announced their non-attendance at the convention over issues of budget and the government’s control of the initiative they deem is being rushed and ought to be driven by citizens.

Magwenya would not be drawn into commenting on Ramaphosa’s position in terms of Mbeki, who has not been shy to criticise Ramaphosa and the government.

“With observations around what the former president is attempting to do, the president will not venture into that. We'll leave that to your good self and others who observe developments as they occur in the political space,” he said.

Magwenya said Ramaphosa was by far the most publicly criticised and attacked president by a former president, which was a slight departure from the unwritten rule in terms of the courtesy that a former president grants to a sitting president.

“The president also recognises and accepts that he is not above criticism, and that we live in a democracy where there's free speech and people are welcome to openly criticise him. That's not something that he loses sleep over from many issues that he has to worry about.”

He said it would have been great to have Mbeki at the convention.

“If he is not there, he is not there. The reality is that the show will go on and South Africans will continue with the dialogue process, and hopefully at some point, not only the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, but also other foundations, will find it among themselves to participate in the process.”

Magwenya was asked whether DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen was still part of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) after his party announced that it would not be part of the National Dialogue.

“I don't know if he has been participating or not, but I think, to be honest with you, it's neither. The IMC has made significant progress in getting us to this point regarding the national convention,” he said.

Magwenya also said the IMC has done a stellar job in ensuring that the costs for the national convention were reduced, securing a lot of sponsorship for the convention, and ensuring that there was no extra pressure that was placed on the fiscus.

“So the IMC has been operating quite well. If Minister Steenhuisen has not participated, I don't think that has created any gaps in the IMC. Maybe, some of his colleagues may have missed him, but I don't think IMC as such would have suffered consequences.”

Ramaphosa will on Friday lead the government delegation and officially open the first national convention that will be held until Saturday at Unisa in Pretoria.

The convention will bring together about 1,000 delegates representing the diversity of the South African nation.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za