Former President Thabo Mbeki has criticised the Democratic Alliances DA decision to boycott the National Dialogue, describing it as misplaced and very strange indeed.
DA leader John Steenhuisen announced the decision recently after President Cyril Ramaphosa ignored the partys ultimatum to fire certain African National Congress ANC ministers and deputy ministers.
This followed Ramaphosas dismissal of the DAs Andrew Whitfield as a deputy minister.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika , DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille also claimed the National Dialogue is just a cover for the ANC's 2026 election campaign.
So, I have been very opposed to it from the start. It was a very important thing for the DA to say we are not participating in it, and if the DA, as the second largest party in the country, doesn't participate in it, the whole thing becomes a sham. The whole thing becomes a hollow exercise, she claimed.
Thabo Mbeki responds to DAs National Dialogue withdrawalHowever, in an open letter to Steenhuisen dated 3 July, Mbeki said he would have found the withdrawal logical if you and the DA had decided to withdraw from the GNU government of national unity.
I consider the decision of the DA not to participate in the National Dialogue as both misplaced and very strange indeed, as well as even being against its own very direct interests, he added.
Mbeki also recalled that he was the one who proposed the Dialogue, with Ramaphosa later endorsing it. He added that the ANCs National Executive Committee accepted a recommendation not to take over the Dialogue, which will be led by various Foundations.
The Preparatory Task Team, and neither the ANC nor the GNU, will be responsible for the preparations for the National Dialogue, the ex-President emphasised.
The National Dialogue will have absolutely nothing to do with Ms Helen Zille's fertile imagination of an ANC's 2026 election campaign, or what you called an ANC-run National Dialogue-'