Simmering tensions between President Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Thabo Mbeki reached boiling point this week when they clashed over arrangements for the contentious national dialogue.
As a result, Mbeki’s foundation and four others pulled out of the preparatory task team just days before the first convention is due to be staged on Friday, raising questions over whether the dialogue can succeed.
The two leaders have in the past clashed over the Phala Phala scandal as well as the social compact. The foundations, including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, are believed to have locked horns with Ramaphosa over a range of issues, including who controls the dialogue process, its budget and the timing of the first convention.
Mbeki — whose idea it was to convene a national dialogue, and who got other foundations on board — is believed to be unhappy with the degree of government involvement. He envisages a process led by civil society, not the state.
Insiders in the government have accused Mbeki and the foundations of “throwing their toys” after Ramaphosa refused their initial budget request for R853m and offered R452m.
At least three sources said they were shocked by Mbeki’s sudden move to withdraw from the convention, saying he had not raised any objections at the four-day NEC meeting this week. Mbeki had actually spoken “glowingly” about the dialogue, they said.
The Sunday Times understands that a heated meeting between Ramaphosa and the preparatory task team members turned sour on Thursday evening when the foundations said they would pull out unless he postponed the convention scheduled for Friday.
They said the foundation leaders argued there had not been enough time for preparation, and if the dialogue got off on the wrong foot it would only provide ammunition for the DA, which has condemned the dialogue as an ANC electioneering ploy being conducted at taxpayer expense.
Insiders said Ramaphosa was unflinching, refusing to postpone Friday’s event. Foundation representatives packed their bags and walked out, the sources said.
Ramaphosa’s office yesterday confirmed that the foundations had insisted that the convention should be postponed, a view the president rejected.
On Friday Mbeki’s foundation and four others — the Steve Biko Foundation, the Chief Albert Luthuli Foundation, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the FW de Klerk Foundation — released a joint statement announcing they had withdrawn from the opening convention.
They complained that the core principles underpinning the whole dialogue process had been violated in the rush to start on August 15.
We cannot lend our names to a gathering that does not allow for genuine dialogue. Furthermore, the national convention was envisaged as a kick-off event for the real heart of the national dialogue — community, sectoral, and citizen-led engagement
— Foundations
On the same day, Ramaphosa insisted the dialogue would go ahead. The president said invitations had gone out to more than 750 organisations who had indicated they would honour the invite.
He said he understood from the foundations that there was nothing “political” about their objections.
“It was just an issue of are we prepared; it could be risky to go ahead when you are not so prepared. I then said to everyone, ‘Go and make sure that we are as ready as we can be.’”
Ramaphosa said Friday’s gathering would not deal with substantive issues but logistics and planning for subsequent conventions.
The announcement by the foundations has exposed the long-standing tensions between Mbeki and Ramaphosa.
In 2023 Mbeki, in a letter to Deputy President Paul Mashatile, criticised the way the ANC was shielding Ramaphosa from facing the music on the Phala Phala scandal.
The ANC had ordered its MPs to vote against adoption of a report by a panel that recommended an ad hoc committee be established to dig deeper.
Sources sympathetic to Mbeki said he had written several letters to Ramaphosa urging postponement. But Ramaphosa allies who spoke to the Sunday Times accused Mbeki of wanting to take ownership of the dialogue and be seen as its “architect”.
“Mbeki is being misled,” one senior government official said. “I don’t understand why he’s fighting a sitting president. It’s actually embarrassing. What they are not telling the country is that they presented a budget R853m for this thing and we said no.
“They then went down begrudgingly to R700m but this was still high. We took it down now to R452m, which would essentially be a 60/40 split with 60% coming from the government and the rest being raised by them,” the official said.
“Yes, they must lead it, we all agree, but the state must enable it. Even if we know you are going to bash the government in that thing, we must regularise this thing within the regulations,” the source said.
“Everything must be done through the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury processes.”
Another government official said: “What we are getting here is that these foundations basically sat somewhere and drew up a budget and they thought the government will just give them the money, but it doesn’t work like that.”
The government officials accused the foundations of pushing for a “bloated budget” but the president had insisted on a more modest amount to avoid any criticism that money was being wasted on the dialogue.
“The president said to the foundations, ‘If there’s certain things that do not meet expectations or that we miss and we get criticised, we will take the criticism and use it to improve when we hold the second convention,’” one source said.
“The president said, ‘I’m not happy with these numbers that have been bandied about ... and I don’t want this thing to be mired in controversy over spending. Get the cost down as much as you can.’”
Insiders close to Mbeki said frustration had been building between the two sides over a number of issues. They accused Ramaphosa of having announced the August 15 date without consulting the foundations.
“Everybody was forced to prepare against the date. But also if you set a date, you have to ensure that we have made enough preparations,” one Mbeki sympathiser.
“There are discussion documents which must be prepared. There was a back and forth between the preparatory task team, which includes the foundations and the Presidency, including the deputy president’s office, over a number of things, including the logistics.
“The Presidency is running a parallel structure with the ANC, which is against the agreement for this to be citizen-led,” this person said.
Nobody has ever voted for the foundations. So where do they then get the authority to be the ones that determine how far the government’s role can go?
— Pro-Ramaphosa source
“The preparations were done by the foundations out of their own pockets. It was their own resources that were used to prepare the documents. There was no staff allocated by the government. It was the foundations which identified sectors that should be invited as well as the inclusion of the South African Council of Churches as a partner.”
This source said the foundations had already drafted eight discussion documents, but they required further work.
The joint statement from the foundations on Friday said: “What began as a citizen-led initiative has unfortunately in practice shifted towards government control. In pushing forward for a convention on August 15 at the will of government officials and against the advice of the subcommittee chairs, we believe that a critical moment in which citizens should be leading will be undermined.
“The principles and important nature of being a citizen-led process are being sacrificed for the sake of expediency.”
The statement said the rushed timeline and constrained logistics were among factors that would jeopardise the convention as a meaningful platform for engagement.
“The structure risks becoming symbolic rather than substantive — more performance than participation.
“We cannot lend our names to a gathering that does not allow for genuine dialogue. Furthermore, the national convention was envisaged as a kick-off event for the real heart of the national dialogue — community, sectoral, and citizen-led engagement,” the foundations said.
“As yet, there is no agreed plan for the rollout of the real dialogue, and as such the national convention is premature.”
The Mbeki camp also took issue with Ramaphosa over his handling of the decision by DA leader John Steenhuisen to boycott the national dialogue following the sacking of the DA’s deputy minister Andrew Whitfield from the cabinet.
The Sunday Times understands that the Mbeki camp criticised the ANC for failing to address the issue more comprehensively.
Sources in the Ramaphosa camp said they were not perturbed by the withdrawal of the five foundations, noting that others — including the Ahmed Kathrada and Nelson Mandela foundations — were still on board.
“It’s the government that truly represents the people, that has been voted in by the people,” one source said. “Nobody has ever voted for the foundations. So where do they then get the authority to be the ones that determine how far the government’s role can go?”
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