Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is planning a return to power by removing President Cyril Ramaphosa from office and is using former spy chief Arthur Fraser to instigate the move, opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has alleged.
Fraser is the man who reported to the South African Police Services about a February 2020 burglary that took place at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala ranch in Limpopo province in the north of the country.
More than US$4 million, which had not been banked, was stolen from the ranch by a maid who was working with outsiders, according to the police.
Speaking in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton on Wednesday, Malema alleged that “Arthur Fraser is working with Mbeki to dethrone Ramaphosa.”
Malema said Mbeki had in the recent past taken swipes at Ramaphosa during African National Congress (ANC) and other events.
Most recently, Mbeki took to the podium at the memorial service of ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte to say Ramaphosa had failed to deliver on promises made during his state-of-the-nation (SONA) addresses, Malema said.
Mbeki accused Ramaphosa of making empty promises on a social compact to take the country out of the economic problems, claiming “nothing” had happened since the SONA, he added.
According to Malema, after Ramaphosa was officially endorsed recently for a second term as ANC leader for the upcoming December elective conference, it was Mbeki who slammed ANC Limpopo provincial chair Stan Mathabatha’s endorsement as ill-disciplined.
Malema said an ANC faction aligned to former president Jacob Zuma was as confused about Fraser’s intentions with the “Phala Phala offensive” against Ramaphosa as was the rest of the country.
While many thought Fraser was fighting for the Zuma faction, the actual force behind the former spy chief was Mbeki, Malema alleged.
According to Malema, Mbeki was intent on making a comeback to lead the ANC again because he felt he had left unfinished business when he was ousted from office by Zuma at the elective conference in December 2007.
Mbeki’s office has not yet commented on the allegations.
NM/jn/APA