The DA nears its turning point
The decision by the DA to campaign on the claim that all was well under both the Mandela and Mbeki governments and that corruption and the rot began only under Zuma, should not surprise. The proximate reason for this is to try to gain support among the COPE electorate as COPE itself collapses. Over 7% of the vote is thus at stake. Secondly, there are an increasing number of disillusioned ANC voters - even Ronnie Kasrils doesn't know who to vote for - and the DA desperately wants to spread its support among this group, which also tends to look back nostalgically at previous ANC governments.
The problem, of course, is that the DA is thus deliberately perverting history. The DP opposed the Mandela government root and branch and refused to participate in it because corruption had really began to blossom then with the arms deal and crony capitalism in all directions. Even Mandela himself said he was shocked by how much corruption there was in the ANC.
The Mbeki regime continued this trend and many of the greatest beneficiaries (think of Smuts Ngonyama and the Telkom deal) were close associates of Mbeki. There is no doubt that Mbeki knew just what he was doing. He was similarly determined to support the Mugabe regime at all costs, even though that meant repeatedly insisting that rigged elections, murder and torture were fine. And, of course, he was responsible for well over 300,000 unnecessary Aids deaths through his systematic refusal to allow ARV drugs to be given to HIV sufferers.
When I interviewed Jacob Zuma about this in 2007 I suggested that the only way to understand Mbeki's Aids policy was to take the view that Mbeki was psychologically disturbed. Zuma replied "Oh yes. And for a long time now." This would, indeed, be Mbeki's best defence if he were summoned to The Hague on charges. It also seems to be the understanding of other world leaders. How otherwise to understand the fact that Mbeki has never been offered an international job of any kind? Not even the most junior UN commission.
President Clinton was so amazed by the deluded and paranoid tone of Mbeki's communications with him that he had them investigated as a possible hoax. Doubtless, once he realised that they were genuine, word would have gone out far and wide that Mbeki was simply wacky. Further Mbeki stunts such as the World Conference Against Racism in Durban (2001) which ended in a complete shambles of anti-Semitism would only have confirmed the view that Mbeki was a dangerous liability. The USA, Canada and Israel all walked out of the conference and the Bush administration was so angry with Mary Robinson for presiding over it that it vowed she would never hold another UN post. And nor did she.