BDFM News Online
Monday, December 11, 2006
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki's defence of ministers who own company shares and get involved in empowerment deals has drawn a stinging response from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which claimed that Mbeki was being dismissive of critics and once again belittling his opponents.
Mbeki on Friday decried "deliberate falsehoods" about the African National Congress (ANC) and government by a "new multi-party offensive", referring to a recent Sunday Times article saying two cabinet ministers, a deputy and the National Assembly speaker, stood to benefit from the Gautrain project through shares they own in the consortium (Bombela) building it.
It was also alleged the ministers sat in a cabinet meeting that approved the project, a claim which government has denied.
Mbeki expressed disappointment at Cosatu and the South African Communist Party for unwittingly colluding with the Democratic Alliance in demanding that the accused politicians refute the allegations and that an official investigation be launched.
"They shared the conviction that ANC leaders were involved in personal self-enrichment, had abused their positions, and had to prove their innocence with no obligation on the part of the accusers to prove the correctness of their allegations," he said.
"None of the accusers of our movement has asked the ANC whether the allegations made against its members and leaders are true.
"Together, even though they acted individually and separately, they came to the common conclusion that the ANC members and leaders concerned should be presumed guilty until they proved conclusively they were innocent."
Cosatu questioned the president's style of engagement and debate, saying it left much to be desired. It said Mbeki drew the race card even against organisations whose membership was constituted mainly by the very ANC members he led.
Cosatu said he sought to "ridicule those he disagrees with and question their integrity".
"In the process, he has antagonised countless organisations and left the ANC and the alliance fractious and divided," it said.
Cosatu vowed not to withdraw "even one word" of what it had said in the Gautrain matter and the involvement of ministers.
"We reiterate that it is wrong for political leaders who have been tasked to lead transformation to get involved in business deals that compromise their roles as government administrators."
Cosatu said it was concerned that a growing number of ANC and government leaders had all manner of business interests, directly or through their spouses.
"The president does not deny that ministers are shareholders in companies that are profiting from government contracts, and specifically from the Gautrain contract," Cosatu said.
"On the contrary, the president seeks to justify this situation and to portray it as normal and even admirable."
Cosatu said it was offensive of Mbeki to play the race card in a manner that "suggests that the people with business interests, whom he is defending, are somehow blacker than the working class components of the alliance".
"It is immoral for anyone to seek to be both a people's representative and be a businessman or women at the same time," Cosatu said. With Sapa