WikiLeaks: Mbeki 'thin-skinned, defensive'
2010-12-09 09:46
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Cape Town - American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that US diplomats expressed strong reservations about Thabo Mbeki soon after he was inaugurated as president.
According to the Guardian, an American envoy said Mbeki was volatile and under sway of poor advisers.
The cable to Washington was titled: "Thin-skinned Mbeki will require deft handling."
Ambassador Delano E Lewis described Mbeki as an "important but hypersensitive African figure" and a "brilliant, prickly leader of Africa's most important state".
Intelligent
However, Lewis questioned his "ability to accept criticism and manage collegially" and his judgement, especially over issues such as HIV/Aids and Zimbabwe.
"Why Mbeki, whose intelligence is widely acknowledged and who is well respected personally, should exhibit a tendency toward shrillness and defensiveness is hotly debated," the cable read.
Mbeki's effectiveness is undermined by his reliance on advisers who "lack the experience and diplomatic seasoning". Those mentioned include Essop Pahad, minister in the presidency; Mbeki's legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi; and his late spokesperson, Parks Mankahlana, who "had lost almost all credibility with his key audience, the South African press, in the months before he died of a disease that most were convinced was Aids, but he would never admit," the cable notes.
Mbeki also remained "unblinkingly loyal" to Cabinet ministers, including "the often insulting and thoughtless minister of safety and security Steve Tshwete"; "the truculent and petulant foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma" or his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, "who circulated to the entire Cabinet large sections of a book by a totally discredited Aids denier".
The ambassador also suggested that Nelson Mandela's global stature "has something to do with Mbeki's occasional manifestations of a fragile ego".
Zuma presidency
More recently, US officials in Pretoria reserved judgement on Jacob Zuma's presidency.
Zuma is "a controversial but not well understood personage who emerged from obscurity to where he now occupies the apex of South Africa's political pyramid. He is deeply loved and revered by his closest constituencies; he is mistrusted by opposition parties; and is hated by those here who believe he is 'wrong for South Africa".
"South Africans have suffered many more and greater tragedies than an elected government with a near two-thirds majority. It is trite to say, but 'time will tell'. In this case, such a statement rings true for South Africa in 2009."
- Full cable