He found he had "lost his levers of control": all the things his former employer had provided for him, from administrative support to a social network.
But he has to balance this against a political desire to promote black control of and access to services like electricity and telephones.There is also a sense that Mr Mbeki fears losing a lever of control.
Their concern may be warranted: Republicans control all levers of government in Washington, and yet they are coming up on one year without a major legislative accomplishment.
Republicans have also continued talking about hard-line immigration proposals even though they have not been able to pass any legislation even though they control all levers of power.
Now that Trump and the GOP are about to control all levers of government, they'll be forced to move beyond mere talk.
Why was the Victorian state so good at building great cities, sewers, clean water pipes, railways, roads and all the infrastructure we still rely on, while we dither, fear to spend or to commandeer the levers of control for the public good?
Wise, strong leaders would have grasped the levers of control and steered the global economy into safe waters where all our jobs would have been safe, banks would have been solid and prudence would have ruled.
It also stands in contrast to the first two years of the Trump administration, when Republicans controlled all levers of government yet failed to deliver on the wall.
A decade ago, despite controlling all levers of power in Sacramento, California Democrats opted to shore up their own seats in redrawing district lines.
Their inability to pass health-care legislation despite having control of both chambers of Congress and the White House marks a stunning failure for the GOP's ability to show it can govern after eight years of not controlling all levers of power.
At the same time, party leaders are mindful of the dangers associated with one party controlling all levers of government, particularly given the monumental financial and international problems the next president and a new Congress will inherit.
