A political earthquake is taking place in South Africa with the ouster of President Thabo Mbeki by his party, the African National Congress, which formally asked him to resign yesterday as the country's president. The embattled president who lost the party leadership to his bitter rival and former deputy, Jacob Zuma, last December (who he fired in 2005 over corruption allegations), has agreed to resign, bringing to an end a long political career marked by triumphs and tragedy. This complex, enigmatic man will be remembered as the architect of post-apartheid South Africa, who steered the country, even more than the legendary Nelson Mandela, on its current course. For some President Mbeki's ignominious removal from office is a cause for celebration, a tribute to party democracy and a harbinger of better days for the masses who have not yet seen the fruits of uhuru, for others it is a deep cause for worry, a sign that the once mighty liberation party has lost its soul under the strains of governing, that it marks the beginning of South Africa's descent into postcolonial mediocrity.
To many observers ousting a lameduck president who only had a few months in office remaining makes little sense except as an act of political vindictiveness by his opponents determined to humiliate him. President Mbeki has not been charged with any criminal offense and is being hounded on a vague inference by a judge about suspected political pressure that he allegedly brought to bear on the National Prosecution Authority to bring a case against Mr. Jacob Zuma. Much is made of President Mbeki's autocratic and technocratic leadership style, his apparent coldness and inability to connect with the masses, but at the heart of his troubles is the fact that although he presided over the longest period of economic growth in recent South African history, the benefits did not trickle down to the ordinary people. In a large sense, therefore, he is a victim of neo-liberal growth that brought little development. The lateness of the country's liberation meant that from the very beginning postapartheid South Africa was in the tight grip of the hegemonic ideology of neo-liberalism and the developmentalism experienced elsewhere across the continent where independence was achieved in the 1950s and 1960s was not pursued. As neo-liberalism wanes, its demise hasted by the meltdown of financial markets and nationalizations in the United States, the possibilities of reconstructing national democratic developmental states improve.
For the sake of South Africa's democratic and developmental future, it is imperative that growth and development be reconsumated, that neo-liberal policies be abandoned, that the fates of the ANC and the state be disentangled, that the ANC's monopoly of power be dismantled through the dissolution of the nationalist coalition into credible and competitive political parties. None of this will of course happen any time soon. But the events surrounding President Mbeki's ouster point to the fracturing of the ANC alliance, the sharpening of ideological dissensions within the party that can no longer be papered over by the uniting heroism of the liberation struggle and the ANC's fabled love of unity. The transition from liberation politics to democratic politics is a long and complex process because of the historical legitimacy and overwhelming popularity of the national liberation movement that brought uhuru. This transition has taken decades in many African countries, and South Africa is only at the beginning of such a process.
South Africa is of course not doomed to follow the familiar and tortuous postcolonial African path, it is merely to point out that the country, which still tends to wrap itself in the apartheid myths of exceptionalism, has valuable lessons to learn from the rest of the continent, where military and civilian coups were once quite common. The real test comes when the party of liberation no longer commands majority support, and has to make way to postliberation political formations. Countries that fail to make that transition pay a high political and economic price as we have seen in Zimbabwe, where ironically President Mbeki staked so much of his diplomatic skills and Pan-African commitments. The events surrounding President Mbeki's resignation may accelerate the erosion of the ANC's electoral support, which is already evident. The manner in which his ouster is perceived and the turmoil it may sow within the party, may explode the bubbling schisms of South African politics around race, ethnicity, class, and gender into the open. Certainly, Mr. Zuma can make no claims of moral or administrative superiority over Mr. Mbeki. To replace a leader who has not been charged with any offense by one who has is a dispiriting sign of the deep quagmire the ANC finds itself in. The ANC may rue the day they rolled this dangerous political dice and precedent.
As the drama unfolds, it is clear South Africa has entered a period of deep uncertainty, perhaps even crisis. The following reports from the South African press provide immediate assesments of the man and the moment. The first offers the largely unfavorable way the South African press has reacted to the ANC's ouster of President Mbeki. P T Zeleza, Editor, The Zeleza Post
Papers Slam ANC's Decision on Mbeki
Local newspapers on Monday largely criticised the African National Congress's removing President Thabo Mbeki from office, while several raised questions about party president Jacob Zuma's leadership.
The ANC leadership will nominate a new president at a meeting at noon on Monday, its spokesperson said.
"The NEC [national executive committee] has mandated the officials of the ANC to discuss some options. As you know, we are the ruling party and as the ruling party, we will put a preferred candidate before the ANC caucus in Parliament," said spokesperson Jessie Duarte.
Business Day said the decision by the national executive committee on Saturday to "recall" Mbeki was done for the wrong reasons.
"Contrary to what some in the ANC leadership are insisting, this was not a step taken with the best interests of the country in mind, nor was it even the outcome that suited the ruling party as a whole," read the paper's editorial.
"It was what Zuma's supporters believed they had to do to increase his chances of avoiding a trial on fraud and corruption charges, and therefore succeeding Mbeki."
The paper called for an "orderly handover of power".
"The centre will hold, especially if those in the government who sympathise with Mbeki resist the temptation to resign in protest.
"A mass exodus from the Mbeki administration would make life difficult for the Zuma faction, but the real damage would be to SA."
Political analyst Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, said it seemed Zuma was unable to control radicals in the ANC.
"The ANC seems to have moved from one extreme to the other -- from an organisation in which the president makes all the decisions to one in which he takes very few, leaving it to the loudest and most ambitious to decide," wrote Friedman in an opinion piece in Business Day.
The Star newspaper, in an article written by journalist Fiona Forde, headlined "Stand up 'Baba' and tell us if we can count on you to lead us", also criticised Zuma.
"The past few days have shown, [that] when in crisis don't depend on the leader of the ANC," wrote Forde.
"As the country contemplates the current state of play, Jacob Zuma is nowhere to be seen ... as a president-in-waiting, Zuma has fallen short of expectations in ... leadership."
In its editorial, the Star said the ANC had let the country down.
"The real cause for concern this morning, as we continue to digest these big events, is that the ANC has put the party before the people on this account, in a move that will have serious and long-term consequences for us all.
"Try as they might to convince us otherwise, the events of the past weekend were a blatant attempt to erase Zuma's challenges from our records by axing the man who was going to pursue them, whatever his agenda," read the editorial.
'Not about party unity'
The Citizen newspaper said Mbeki's resignation "fractured rather than unified the party. This was not about party unity. It was about revenge. The ANC president's current paymasters will also want their pound of flesh.
"Does he [Zuma] have the moral fibre to stand up to them and do what is right for the country? He was unable to persuade them of the bigger picture on Friday night. When genuine leadership was needed, Zuma finally placed NEC consensus above the interests of us all."
In a front-page editorial, Beeld said Zuma supporters used Judge Chris Nicholson's ruling that Mbeki may have been involved in a political plot against Zuma, as an excuse to remove Mbeki from office.
"Zuma is not fit to govern South Africa while a cloud of corruption still hangs over his head," read Beeld's report.
"The dirty and nasty faction fights within the ANC must now come to an end. Zuma must prove that he is not being held hostage by the fighter dogs in the ANC Youth League, Cosatu [Congress of SA Trade Unions] and the SACP [South African Communist Party]."
The Sowetan described the move to oust Mbeki as a "bolt from the sky".
"What this action has done is to sow confusion and create uncertainty in the country. The next weeks should put immense pressure on our democracy as both government and the ANC try to minimise the effect of the Mbeki fallout."
According to the Times Mbeki was "the architect of his own political demise".
"It was clear that Mbeki was not afraid to use state institutions against his political rivals. Mbeki governed, or rather ruled, the country through fear. So scores have now been settled. But at what cost to the 40-million or so South Africans who just want to live in a stable, prosperous democracy?"
Themba Khumalo, editor of tabloid the Daily Sun, wrote that the Mbeki administration had a bad reputation for service delivery.
"It makes me sad for the person, Thabo Mbeki. But he should have seen it coming long ago, and he should have taken steps long ago to steer himself to safety.
"This was the price of his own political failures," wrote Khumalo.
He dedicated a song by Beyonce Knowles, He Still Loves Me, to Mbeki.
Some of the words in the song are: "See, I've been picked out to be picked on ... seems like I always fell short of being worthy because I ain't good enough" - Sapa
From The Mail & Guardian September 22, 2008
Thabo Mbeki's Downfall By Chiara Carter
The strident clamour of calls for the ANC to axe the "lame-duck" President Thabo Mbeki is far from the epithets the country's leader once enjoyed as the crown prince who became the philosopher king and was hailed as Mr Delivery.
As Mbeki's comrades were pondering how he should exit the presidency after more more than nine years at the helm, for many other South Africans a future without Mbeki is almost unimaginable.
His influence on the country and the continent has been immense and many youngsters can barely remember a time before his stamp was put on government.
That's because Mbeki, son of the revered veteran ANC leader Govan Mbeki, served under Nelson Mandela as one of two deputy presidents after the 1994 elections and later became the sole deputy president.
He increasingly assumed responsibility for the day-to-day management of government while Mandela focused on reconciliation.
The next election saw the ANC just miss a two-thirds majority and marked the start of the Mbeki era.
By 2004, Mbeki led the ANC to an even greater landslide victory.
As the then new president stepped into Mandela's "big shoes" he was welcomed by many, even outside his informal "kitchen cabinet" circle, as a moderniser, the man who would go beyond "feel good" and do, the engineer who would get the rainbow nation's engine oiled and ticking over in a new millennium.
Government bumph warbled: "one of the ANC's leading intellectuals, Mbeki commands respect as a hard worker and a task master who gets things done".
Business Day editor Peter Bruce later wrote of Mbeki: "He made the policies and he found the people to implement them he genuinely believes good governance and fiscal propriety are essential conditions for development."
One of Mbeki's undoubted achievements was improving how the government operated and he will certainly be remembered as the architect of a modern South Africa.
Post-1999, power became increasingly centralised in an enlarged presidency run by director-general Frank Chikane and the executive arm of government gained muscle as Mbeki, over nearly a decade, forged an intricate architecture that interfaced in different spheres and across departments.
Joel Netshitenzhe in an article "What is a director-general?" provided a taste of how it was in that heyday of the Mbeki era when a "quiet revolution" was happening.
He wrote: "The place is the Union Buildings: the management committee of the Forum of South African Directors-General (Fosad) is in a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki. A sequel to the day-long lekgotla Mbeki held with all directors-general (DGs) last August.
"At that lekgotla, the president posed yet another question: what are the priorities of government?
"This is the one exciting thing about the Mbeki era. More than at any other time in the past five years, government is being forced to think."
Netshitenzhe ended: "Call it centralisation or what you will, this government can think. It can tell you what a director-general is."
Yet while one Cabinet minister ruing Mbeki's fall from power recently said "nobody understands government as well as Mbeki ", a national executive committee member hit back: "But what works, other than Sars?"
The point is valid - it is one of the ironies that Mbeki's refashioned state all too often failed to deliver in a way that seriously dented poverty.
Yet, the decade did see the state establish the basis for a social welfare net that stands to expand significantly in coming years.
Aside from remodelling governance, Mbeki will be remembered for his emphasis on economic stability and the years of economic growth and even boom-times.
His time in office saw the introduction of black economic empowerment measures. But development nodes, expanded public works programmes and other pet projects did not do enough to affect the terrible poverty of the many living in what amounted to another South Africa entirely from that occupied by the BEE barons.
Critically, unemployment, when the statistics were disentangled, remained a massive problem.
Then there was the shadow-side to the Mbeki presidency, which was very different from that of the rational technocrat with a taste for economics and poetry.
Aids denialism confounded many of Mbeki's colleagues, who by and large remained silent about their disagreement with his views, and to this day remains a terrible blot on his rule.
Not only did the president's espousal of quack science see him clash with virtually the whole world aside from health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, it translated into a mountain of avoidable deaths in a country that had one of the highest infection rates in the world.
While Mbeki was eventually pressured into effecting saner HIV/Aids policies, many believe he remains a denialist.
Equally strange for one who emphasised efficiency, Mbeki retained a deadweight of ministers who patently failed to deliver in their portfolios.
Significantly the notable exceptions were Mbeki's deputy, and ultimately his nemesis, Jacob Zuma, and deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
Both these axings proved fatal to Mbeki, as did the firing of intelligence chief Billy Masetlha, the early retirement of defence chief Siphiwe Nyanda and the suspension of prosecutions chief Vusi Pikoli. These moves saw Mbeki bleed support within the ANC and beyond.
Mbeki's increasingly arrogant stance alienated many but he was shielded from knowing this, not only because he habitually reads only foreign newspapers and magazines, but also because he was surrounded by a circle of sycophants who to the bitter end remained solid in their blind praise of "the chief".
Others, however, felt distaste for the cutting manner in which Mbeki put down critics. When the SACP's Jeremy Cronin warned against the "Zanufication" of the ANC under Mbeki, he was forced to apologise.
The ultra-left were repeatedly targeted. Archbishop Emiritus Desmond Tutu was attacked in an unseemly way after he had criticised Mbeki.
The race card was flashed in the face of other criticism, including when concerns were expressed over the soaring crime rate and also the issue of rape.
The arms deal, described as "the poisoned well" of post-apartheid South African politics, haunted Mbeki's time in office with corruption allegations, scandals and investigations dominating headlines for years.
Also disturbing was the extent to which the country under Mbeki was repeatedly awash with poisonous rumours of conspiracies.
There was Mbeki's claim he was the target of a massive counter-intelligence campaign by the pharmaceutical industry and the CIA.
There was the disgraceful public announcement that the state was investigating a coup plot by the very leaders Mbeki viewed as rivals: Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Matthews Phosa.
That discredited claim was followed by speculation that the real target was Zuma, who then pledged loyalty to Mbeki in a somewhat bizarre statement.
There was the odd "hoax e-mail" saga followed by the Browse mole draft report.
And of course there was the claim by Zuma that he was a victim of political conspiracy - a claim given credence by Judge Chris Nicholson last week.
Few would quibble with an assessment that Mbeki's paranoia, coupled with a vestige of Stalinism that brooked little defiance or criticism, bred the very forces that are now poised to destroy him.
Mbeki's infamous aloofness meant that even in the face of rising dissent within the ANC, the president remained largely invisible from the public, aside from his weekly diatribes in the ANC's online newsletter ANC.
While Mbeki stayed at a distance from comrades and citizens, the ANC he had lived for was a changed creature, riven by tensions and factionalism and peopled by many who did not have an exile history and were not steeped in the democratic centralist tradition. Its alliance partners were pushing for leadership and policy change.
Only towards the end of his ill-fated challenge to retain the ANC leadership for a third term, did Mbeki's advisers encourage a publicity drive and grant interviews with the president. By then it was too late and the Mbeki camp was publicly humiliated at Polokwane.
Throughout his time in office Mbeki lived his commitment to the continent, movingly outlined in his hauntingly beautiful mid-90s speech in Parliament, "I am an African".
Indeed, the president's seminal role on an international stage had many prophetically comparing him to Jan Smuts, the great international figure who lost support at home.
Time magazine rated Mbeki as one of the world's most influential leaders, and he was. Mbeki will be remembered not least for the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development as well as his leading role in tackling the problems of conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and, of course, Zimbabwe.
The crisis in Zimbabwe occasioned much criticism of Mbeki's quiet diplomacy, which ironically bore fruit in the power-sharing agreement signed just as, back home, Mbeki was dealt the hammer blow of the Nicholson ruling.
From The Cape Argus, September 20, 2008
ANC Dumps Mbeki, Moves To 'Heal Rift' By Mandy Rossouw
South African President Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resign after the ANC announced that it would remove him from office before the end of his term.
"Following the decision of the national executive committee of the African National Congress to recall President Thabo Mbeki, the president has obliged and will step down after all constitutional requirements have been met," the presidency said.
The move could collapse the government and prompt early elections.
Mbeki has been mired in accusations that he conspired to undermine ANC leader Jacob Zuma.
"Our movement has been through a trying period and we are determined to heal the rift that might exist. In light of this and after a long and difficult discussion, the ANC has decided to recall the president of the republic before his term of office expires," ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Kempton Park on the East Rand.
"Our decision has been communicated to him," said Mantashe.
Mantashe said that Mbeki's reaction to the news was "normal".
"He didn't display shock or any depression. He welcomed the news and agreed that he is going to participate in the parliamentary process. If I said he was excited I would be exaggerating."
Presidency spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said Mbeki had accepted the decision.
Mantashe said the decision was taken "as an effort to heal and unite the African National Congress".
Mantashe said the decision was a political way to deal with the implications of Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris Nicholson's ruling that Mbeki may have been involved in a political conspiracy against Zuma.
"The biggest worry of the ANC had been the question of a reversal of the closure of the chapter that the Nicholson judgement seemed to have promised."
The National Prosecuting Authority's decision to appeal the judgement had become a worry, said Mantashe.
"If pursued it will continue to be a point of division for the ANC."
When asked whether a vote had been taken to reach the decision, Mantashe said: "We discussed until we reached a consensus".
When asked what the reaction would be if other Cabinet ministers were to resign, Mantashe said they were considered "on the one hand, deployees who had mutual respect and commitment to the ANC, but on the other hand they were also individuals".
Mlambo-Ngcuka stands by her man
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka will formally hand in her resignation if Mbeki resigns, her spokesperson said on Saturday.
Mbeki is expected to address the media and the country later in the day, in which he is expected to comment on the party's decision.
Denzel Taylor said that Mlambo-Ngcuka would hand in her resignation depending on whether Mbeki hands in his resignation.
"I can confirm that the deputy president will resign if the president is asked to step down and resigns accordingly," Taylor said.
"She was appointed by the president and has served him loyally. She feels that it is the right thing to do."
'Political barbarity'
The United Democratic Movement condemned the manner in which the ANC recalled Mbeki, describing it as "an act of political barbarity".
"To remove the head of state like this is an act of political barbarity that threatens to plunge the country into anarchy," Bantu Holomisa said in a statement on Saturday.
"Here is a person who has not been accused of any crime, but he is being pushed out of office by a person who faces charges of fraud and corruption."
Holomisa said the Mbeki legacy, in setting up institutions in the country and on the continent, would be remembered.
"Like any government they have had their flaws and their successes. His legacy will be the institutions that he put in place in the country and on the continent, such as Nepad and the revived African Union."
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania said the ANC's decision was not in the interest of the country, but was "informed by its desire to preempt the appeal by the National Prosecuting Authority".
PAC president Letlapa Mphahlel said that although the ANC had the right to deploy and recall party members, the move was informed by the party's "self-serving narrow interests".
The Independent Democrats would like a clear indication of how the ANC would deal with the impact of Mbeki's exit, ID leader Patricia de Lille said.
"We would like to see a clear plan by the ANC to deal with the impact Mbeki's exit will have on the running of government, service delivery, economic stability and international relations."
De Lille said it was important to have a plan in place for the "likely departure of some ministers with Mbeki".
The Young Communist League welcomed the ANC's decision and appealed to Cabinet ministers not to resign.
"As YCL we believe that the Ministers owe their allegiance to the Constitution and the citizens of our country, and not to an individual," National Secretary Buti Manamela said.
Insiders in the party told the Mail & Guardian the plan is to replace Mbeki with parliamentary Speaker and ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete, but this will not be done through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence or by impeachment.
Removing Mbeki from the Presidency could rattle investors with whom he is popular because of his pro-business policies. But he has been on thin ice with powerful trade unions and other Zuma supporters, who accuse Mbeki of trying to undermine the man who replaced him as ANC leader.
Fired as Mbeki's deputy president in 2005 after he was linked to alleged wrongdoing in the multimillion-rand arms deal, Zuma defeated Mbeki in a bitter leadership contest late last year that ended at the ANC's Polokwane conference in December. Zuma is seen as the front-runner to succeed him as head of state next year.
Mbeki is barred by the Constitution from a third term as state president.
The move to oust the president picked up speed after Judge Chris Nicholson last week in the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled that corruption charges against Zuma were not legal, and said there had been high-level meddling in the case.
Zuma's camp has branded the prosecution a political witch-hunt by Mbeki and his aides.
Mbeki, who has consistently denied he hatched a political conspiracy against Zuma, lashed out at his critics on Friday even as the NEC -- which is dominated by Zuma allies -- met to discuss his fate.
"It impoverishes our society that some resort to the tactic of advancing allegations with no fact to support these," the president said in a statement issued by his office. He said he was not involved in the National Prosecuting Authority's decision to appeal against Nicholson's ruling. - Reuters, Sapa
