Akinyemi: Unholy Deal between South African White Minority, ANC, Hunting Leaders
Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie
Following the controversy surrounding the second term bid of the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, even though he has been re-elected as the leader of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), Nigerian former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, has said the unholy deal reached between members of the ANC political party and the white minority leaders in South Africa has continued to hunt the leaders of the ANC after its former President, Nelson Mandela, handed over to Thabo Mbeki.
According to him, the three leaders from ANC that ruled South Africa after Mandela were accused of corruption, including the sitting President, Ramaphosa.
Akinyemi, who made the allegation yesterday on ARISE
NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, said from Thabo Mbeki to Jacob Zuma to the current South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is seeking re-election, they have all been accused of corruption and embezzlement at the end of their first and second tenure in office.
He, however, said such accusations were far beyond corruption and could be traced to the agreement reached between the leaders of ANC and the white minority leaders in South Africa, “because none of the leaders has kept to the agreement that was reached at the point of surrendering power to black South Africans by the white minority leaders.”
Speaking about the agreement, Akinyemi said: “An unholy agreement was reached during the transition from apartheid regime to the ANC regime, which was the period that the black majority took over power from the white minority leaders in South Africa. The deal was that the white minority leaders will relinquish power to black majority leaders and give the blacks political independence, while the control of businesses will remain in the hands of the white minority leaders. But none of the black leaders after Nelson Mandela has kept to that deal, and this has been the bane of their many challenges while in office.”
He said every post-independent leader in South Africa was always faced with all kinds of accusations, not because they have not done well, but because they have refused to keep to the deal reached by their founding political fathers with the white minority leaders in South Africa.
The Nigerian former diplomat said Mandela was not accused of any corruption charges because they respected him as someone who fought with everything he had to liberate South Africa from the apartheid regime.
Akinyemi said African countries, including Nigeria, supported South Africa in fighting against apartheid because they wanted to see South Africa as a shining light in Africa, adding however that the issue of corruption had never been peculiar to the South African government, since corruption cuts across most African countries.
Fielding questions about the political structures in South Africa, and how to end the issue of corruption accusation in the country, Akinyemi said the votes of the people of South Africa should count, rather than the votes of those representing the ANC.
