WATCH: Jacob Zuma a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’- Mbeki cries state sabotage

Former president Thabo Mbeki has taken aim at his successor Jacob Zuma, suggesting he had sabotaged the SA economy to collapse the state.

Mbeki stepped down as president in 2008, with Zuma later taking over as head of the country. The pair’s relationship had been strained, with Mbeki removing Zuma as his deputy in 2005 amid corruption allegations related to the Arms Deal.

Reflecting on 30 years of democracy during an address in Freedom Park in Tshwane on Tuesday, Mbeki said the country had gone through two defined economic, social and development “ages“: from 1994 to 2007 and from 2008 to date.

Zuma sabotage?

While the first saw much progress, the other was filled with more difficulties and slowed growth.

ALSO READ: ‘Don’t buy into his new story’ – Dali Mpofu shades Mbeki’s ANC campaigning

He also highlighted several commissions to look at government maladministration, State Capture, and alleged corruption; before criticising the state of the country under Zuma.

Quoting the findings of reports into state capture, Mbeki suggested Zuma had sabotaged the country nearly to the brink of collapse, and claimed he was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

Watch Mbeki’s comments on the Zuma years and alleged sabotage:

[WATCH] One of the things which stood out in the Nugent Report was the role that the well-known US Business Consultancy, Bain & Company, had played in planning and participating in the attempted destruction of SARS.

The Commission also detailed the extensive process of… pic.twitter.com/K5IfnHtweC

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) April 30, 2024

“This provides us with a conundrum. Here, according to the judicial commissions, we have a head of government [Jacob Zuma] who joins a process to reduce the very revenues he needs to enable the government to discharge its responsibilities, up to the point of the possible collapse of that government.

“How do we explain this puzzle? The only logical way to explain this is, as challenging as it might be even to comprehend, here we are dealing with a wolf in sheep’s skin”.

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He claimed that “time will tell if this logical deduction is correct”.

Load shedding

He also hit back at claims the government was warned about a brewing power crisis in 2008 but did nothing about it.

He claimed the first instance of load shedding came six years later and was part of larger sabotage.

Watch Mbeki’s comments on the power crisis:

[WATCH] One of the first major contracts awarded by Eskom for the building of Medupi and Kusile was to the French multinational, Alstom, to supply the Control & Instrumentation, (C&I), system which is regarded as the ‘brain’ of any power station.

By December 2012, Alstom’s C&I… pic.twitter.com/EixE6FXAjr

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) April 30, 2024