JOHANNESBURG - Former president Thabo Mbeki has stirred up fresh political debate.
He suggests that the ANC's recent setbacks may not be accidental, but orchestrated.
Mbeki told the Umkhonto weSizwe Liberation War Veterans conference that the party's electoral decline, the rise of Jacob Zuma's MK Party, and even the 2021 July unrest could be linked to long-standing counter-revolutionary forces.
He also blamed elements of the old apartheid security machinery that was never dismantled.
"It was the activation of that national security management system which produced that result,” Mbeki said.
ALSO READ | Mbeki urges ANC to face up to its crisis
“That machinery had never been dismantled. We raised this matter with the TRC. The TRC tried. You go and look at the records of the TRC. It tried to get into this matter but couldn't produce any result.”
The former president added that the same machinery used to produce that result had not been dismantled.
"You remember during this so-called war on war, black on black violence, those were IFP hostels. They were clash, big clash with the ANC communities, IFP decide themselves.
"These are IFP hostels. But what happened in 2024? They all abandoned the IFP and went with the MK party. Why? It's because they are controlled by the same person," he said.
"It's the same person who controlled them when they were IFP hospitals. The same person who controlled them when they were IFP hostels, the same person who controls them today as MK hostels, MK party hostels."