Issued by: Office of the Executive Deputy President T. M. Mbeki
The Sunday Times (18 October 1998) published an article on its front page under the headline "Mandela and Mbeki to merge offices" that contained several inaccuracies.
We express serious concern that the Sunday Times did not contact either the Office of the President or the Office of the Executive Deputy President for comment regarding this article.
The articles states as fact that the Offices of the President and Deputy President are to 'merge into a new "super-presidency" without providing any evidence for this. We need to emphatically indicate that this is not true.
There are a number of other inaccuracies in the article. For example, it is not true that Reverend Frank Chikane "led officials from both offices in the first round of discussions on the unification." Senior officials from the Office of the Executive Deputy President did meet to discuss the recommendations contained in the Report of the Presidential Review Commission (PRC). This was to help prepare an input from this Office to a meeting of an Ministers Committee formed to discuss the PRC Report.
This meeting certainly did not discuss the merger of the two offices, who would lead such an "merged office", the creation of a "super-presidency" or for that matter who would be the administrative head of such an Office.
In regards to the recommendations contained in the PRC Report the Cabinet had already approved that a ministers committee lead by the Minister for the Public Service and Administration make a submission to the Cabinet. The decision clearly indicates that the Report would be dealt with politically by political office bearers and not civil servants.
Issued by: Office of the Executive Deputy President
Date: 19 October 1998
More information: Ricky Naidoo Tel: 083 5555189