Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has said he is preparing to quit politics altogether and won’t campaign for the ruling African National Congress for next year’s elections.

Since stepping down as South African president in September – after losing a power struggle within the ruling party -Thabo Mbeki has remained relatively quiet. Until now.

In a letter published Friday, Mr. Mbeki revealed some of his feelings about rival and ruling (ANC) party leader Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress, and the formation of a new breakaway political party.

“Currently am working as speedily as I can … to ensure that whatever I do in no way involves me in the internal politics of the ANC or the functioning of the Government of South Africa.I refuse to rule form the grave,wrote Mbeki.

The ANC told Mbeki to resign as national president after a High Court judge ruled that he may have pressured prosecutors to charge Zuma with fraud. Zuma, who can’t become head of state because he isn’t a member of parliament, is expected to lead the country after the elections. Deputy ANC leader Kgalema Motlanthe was appointed as interim president.

Mbeki, in the letter, said he “could not understand how the same ANC, which was so disenchanted with me, could within a fortnight, consider me such a dependable cadre as could be relied upon to promote the political fortunes of the very same movement, the ANC which I had betrayed in such a grave and grevious manner.”

Zuma ousted Mbeki as party president at a congress last December. His ascendancy drew support from the youth league, labor unions and the South African Communist Party, which has an alliance with the ANC.

In the letter, Mbeki said it was ironic that ANC members criticize him for building a cult of personality when, he said, his rival Zuma has created one.

“I find it strange in the extreme that today cadres of our movement attach the label of a `cult of personality’ to me and indeed publicly declare a determination `to kill’ to defend your own cause, the personal interests of the `personality’ Jacob Zuma,” Mbeki wrote.

Full Letter Here