CAPE TOWN - Former president Thabo Mbeki claims that the ANC is heavily infiltrated by the apartheid intelligence services.
Mbeki was speaking at a town hall discussion with high school pupils and university students in Cape Town
The students took the opportunity to ask him a myriad of questions about the current state of South Africa.
The 16th Thabo Mbeki Africa Day lecture had the theme Rebuilding African Unity In an Age of Fragmentation.
During the Q&A, the former statesman gave the students some insight into some of the problems faced by the ANC post 1994.
READ | Mbeki suggests ANC setbacks orchestrated
He blamed some of them on counter revolutionaries, doing their best to make a democratic South Africa a failure.
"We worked very, hard to make sure that we identified these negative elements in our ranks and push them out. That was done. But there are, many we never found,".
Mbeki downplayed the issue of undocumented migrants in the country, saying he can't understand South Africans marching against them.
A placard demonstration also took place on the steps of St George's Cathedral, in solidarity with African migrants who have been subjected to threats and denied access to hospitals, clinics and schools.
Wendy Pekeur from the Ubuntu Rural Women and Youth movement said South Africans are not poor because of migrants taking our jobs, but due to a capitalist agenda putting profit over people.