Frank Chikane was Former President Thabo Mbeki’s
director-general. He then authored a book titled, Eight Days in
September. In the book
he wrote about the many activities that took place before and during the
removal of the former head of state. The book is one of the best informative books ever published in South Africa as it gives us the realness of what happened to such an extent that Mbeki was removed or rather the plot against Mbeki.
"There was no point in beating a dead snake" President Jacob Zuma
“DEPUTY President Kgalema Motlanthe, then-secretary-general
of the ANC, first came to government in July 2008 as an unwilling minister
without portfolio in the presidency. He was selected by the post-Polokwane
leadership to take care of their interests because some deeply distrusted Thabo
Mbeki. For them, Mbeki should have been removed as president immediately after
Polokwane. There was no clear indication of what these interests were.
The reality is that Polokwane did not radically change the policies of the ANC
relating to governance issues. The traditional ANC language of “change and
continuity” was used at the Polokwane conference to indicate that the overall
thrust of the policy was unaltered. The only changes related to aspects that
would enable the government to better achieve the broad objective of the ANC,
which was to better the lives of the people.”
Complete excerpt: The
Sunday Independent
“Although the exercise was useful, enabling us to prepare
ourselves for any eventuality, it was also both theoretical and speculative. We
had to wait for the NEC (national executive committee) to make its decision
before we could determine the implications. Uppermost in our minds was the commitment to maintain
stability in the country, whatever the outcome of the NEC meeting. President Mbeki had made this very clear. His attitude was
based on two hallmarks of ANC policy and Mbeki’s presidency.”
“It was after midnight of Friday, 19 September 2008 – to be
precise, just before 1.00 a.m. on Saturday – when the first text messages began
to come through: ‘the NEC has decided to recall Mbeki as president of the
country’. Another said that ANC officials had been appointed to visit
Mbeki immediately, that night, to inform him of the NEC decision. Other text messages kept coming from NEC members in Esselen
Park celebrating that they had won and that Mbeki was to be removed or else
expressing concern over the consequences of the NEC decision.”
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