Writing in the African National Congress' online publication, ANC Today, he said the latest fear of a one-party state "is in reality fear of democracy".
Being proposed was that democracy was in danger of turning into its opposite, with the assertion that out of democratic practice, dictatorship would be born, he said.
"From this, the argument is advanced that the acid test of a democratic system is a strong opposition".
But the implementation of the Constitution's provisions for, among other things, a multi-party system and elections reflecting the will of the people, resulted in the current Parliament having some parties represented only by one MP.
Whatever else anyone might have thought of this outcome, nobody could doubt the fact that it represented the will of the people, including the smallest political minority among these masses, Mbeki said.
"The defining feature of democracy is the establishment and maintenance of a system of government based on the will of the people, with the people enjoying and exercising the right freely to express this will at regular intervals.
"And this is what those in our country who argue that the defining feature of democracy is the existence of a strong opposition seek to question.
"It may be that such free expression of the will of the people will result in the ANC being elected by the people as by far the strongest political formation in the country.
"This cannot serve as justification for an argument that the result of this free expression of the will of the people is at the same time a threat to democracy.
"Those who advance this argument must be exposed for what they are, people who mouth the principles of democracy, but fear the very democracy they pretend to espouse," Mbeki said.
They created all manner of scarecrows intended to terrify the people about the prospect of a decisive ANC victory.
One of these was suggestions the ANC intended to change the Constitution to enable the president to hold office for a third term, which was pure falsification.
The recently "discovered" ANC plan to appoint three deputy presidents after the April elections was another absurd and non-existent example of scaremongering.
However, the scarecrows and "tellers of false stories" would not frighten the people.
"Neither will these masses allow themselves to be led astray by the fabrications of those whose interests dictate that they try everything they can to defeat the ANC, with no holds barred," Mbeki said. – Sapa.
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