WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-10-30 Time: 12:00:17 Posted By: Jan
By Fiona Ford & Gaye Davis
Brealway rebels Mbhazima Shilowa and Mosiuoa Lekota issued a direct challenge to the ANC on Wednesday night to publish the letter written by former president Thabo Mbeki to party president Jacob Zuma – just hours after being sent a copy by Mbeki’s office.
And in a bombshell announcement, the pair said ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe had been quoting selectively when he had said on Tuesday that Mbeki had distanced himself from the dissident movement.
Confirming receipt of the letter, Shilowa said he and Lekota contested what Mantashe had said when he had claimed Mbeki had written that he had not given the dissidents his blessing.
“We have the letter. We challenge the ANC to release the letter in public so they (the public) can decide who is saying what,” Shilowa told The Mercury.
He said that since the ANC had begun to quote selectively from the letter, the onus was on the organisation to release the letter.
ANC national spokesperson Jessie Duarte was adamant on Wednesday night that the ANC would not release the letter.
“The ANC does not release letters written to it,” she said.
Mbeki had ordered that a copy of his letter to Zuma be delivered to Lekota because it was “only fair”, Mbeki’s spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, told The Mercury.
He said Mbeki had no objection “in principle” to the contents of his letter being published, because its existence had been revealed and “part of its contents” had been discussed.
“Further, in view of the fact that the letter deals in part to matters that Lekota raised with the ANC and about the ANC, and which matters are now being brought into the public domain without Lekota having the benefit of sight of the letter, the former president is of the view that it is only fair to make a copy available to Lekota,” Ratshitanga said.
Lekota raised a number of concerns with the ANC in an open letter penned earlier this month and published ahead of his announcement that he intended to mobilise for a national convention to assess the state of democracy in the country under the present ANC leadership.
It provoked a stinging personal attack from transport minister and senior national executive committee member Jeff Radebe.
Mantashe revealed the existence of the letter on Tuesday, at a Unisa seminar.
He suggested that Mbeki had distanced himself from the dissidents, saying that Mbeki had not given them his blessing.
It was a move seen in some quarters as a calculated one to stall the breakaway movement just days ahead of its national convention in Sandton this weekend.
But the move may have backfired. The Mercury reported on Wednesday that the letter also dealt with other issues – including Mbeki’s discomfort at learning through the media that he would be expected to help campaign for the ANC by the very people who had recalled him.
The dilemma the ANC now faces is that if the letter sees the light of day, it is possible that Mantashe’s references to what Mbeki wrote may be revealed as an attempt to dent the fortunes of the breakaway movement.
It might also reveal exactly what Mbeki’s position is on the party’s assumption that he will assist in its election campaign.