Thabo Mbeki, Che cultist
President Thabo Mbeki marked the anniversary of Che Guevara’s death by paying homage to the communist revolutionary. The man who was instrumental in establishing a brutal dictatorship in Cuba, he called dedicated to the true liberation of each people and the genuine independence of all countries. The man who lied about his credentials to work as a doctor, he says worked to emancipate the working people from the scourges of poverty, hunger and underdevelopment. Guevara’s attacks on the genuine independence of other countries by fomenting communist revolution, he calls modest efforts of assistance. The man in charge of hundreds of extrajudicial executions he calls one of the great human beings of the age. And when the Bolivians took offence and shot the murderous bastard, Mbeki calls it assassination.
Despising a communist and a murderer doesn’t necessarily mean his enemies were saints. They most certainly were not. But despising his enemies likewise doesn’t mean Guevara deserves blind reverence. In fact, even a modest amount of knowledge of his life and work would counsel against hagiography.
Assuming that Mbeki is no longer a dyed-in-the-wool communist who hails tyrants as heroes and murderers as liberators, and assuming that Mbeki remains the well-read intellectual he always was, one can only conclude that this was a cold, calculated attempt to win over the left wing of his party. Which raises the question: is there no level to which Mbeki won’t stoop for the sake of cheap political demagoguery?
