Former President Thabo Mbeki has said the African National Congress (ANC) would not allow ANC leaders to be “bought by monopoly capital.”
Mbeki, who is also former ANC President, was speaking at an interactive session with students of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute in Pretoria on Thursday.
A student asked him if he feared that big businesses have “captured” ANC leaders.
I’m quite certain that, as members of the ANC, we would never allow a situation in which leaders of the ANC are bought by monopoly capital; that they cease to be our leaders; [that] they become the property of somebody else.
If that happens, you should blame the rest of us, but I don’t think we would allow that to happen.
So it’s not a particular fear that I have, that anybody has been bought by monopoly capital.
Former President Thabo Mbeki
CR17 campaign controversy
President Cyril Ramaphosa is currently embroiled in controversy surrounding the donors to his 2017 CR17 campaign for the ANC’s presidency.
Last weekend, The Sunday Independent revealed some of the donors, such as the billionaire Oppenheimer family and Colin Coleman, CEO of Goldman Sachs Southern Africa.
This has sparked claims that “white monopoly capital” has captured the president.
In an article in IOL, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Deputy President Floyd Shivambu argued that Ramaphosa is “a rented president.”
The white capitalists united in support for Ramaphosa to win over the ANC, with the end goal being the capture of the state.
EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu
However, Ramaphosa has always maintained that the donors to his campaign only supported the vision of a renewed ANC and had no expectation of anything in return.