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South Africa: Moves to Oust Mbeki Gather Force
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
2 June 2008
Posted to the web 2 June 2008
Karima Brown
Johannesburg
SA's crisis of governance is deepening as calls for President Thabo Mbeki to step down before his term ends grow more strident by the day.
Mbeki's critics say the African National Congress (ANC) should impeach or recall him, or else opt for an early election to address the "governance and leadership vacuum" that has gripped the country.
The Democratic Alliance has also called on Mbeki to step down. Last week the Sunday Times called on Mbeki to go in the "interest" of the country.
The crisis in Zimbabwe arguably Mbeki's biggest foreign policy failure -- was cited as the reason he should leave office.
Yesterday the ANC was again officially forced to support Mbeki's role as mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, despite deep misgivings about his efforts among senior ANC leaders.
While ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte said the party believed that Mbeki "should continue to mediate" the conflict, ANC national executive committee (NEC) members privately questioned Mbeki's neutrality after the Sunday Times reported on a letter written by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai to Mbeki, in which he accuses Mbeki not only of bias but of trying to meddle in the internal affairs of the MDC.
ANC president Jacob Zuma has defended Mbeki's role as mediator, but he is on record as saying that the crisis in Zimbabwe is untenable. ANC insiders say Zuma has defended Mbeki on Zimbabwe "as much as he possibly can", but could no longer extricate Mbeki from allegations that he is biased in favour of Zanu (PF).
When asked for comment on whether Mbeki should continue as the Southern African Development Community's (SADC's) point man on the Zimbabwe crises, an NEC member said: "We didn't appoint him; ask the SADC why he is still in charge."
However, the ANC's leftist ally, the South African Communist Party (SACP), yesterday repeated its call that Mbeki must go, saying it is not because of some "personal irritation" but because of the serious vacuum in governance and leadership on a series of challenges.
The SACP has blasted Mbeki's handling of the political and economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, saying he has not "provided leadership". It has also said developments at the Ginwala commission of inquiry (into whether former National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli is fit to hold office) suggested that there were grounds to "impeach" the president.
SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin told a media briefing in Johannesburg that the party did not make its call lightly. "It's not a call we make off the top of our heads, however, there is an all-round crisis of coherence, of governance of leadership -- be it on Zimbabwe, the SABC, our criminal justice system and the economy. Our call is in fact a deeply patriotic one," Cronin said.
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SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said the party wanted an alliance economic summit and a governance summit as part of a "series of measures" to deal with the governance crisis . He said the drama at the Constitutional Court -- which stemmed from allegations that Judge John Hlophe had tried to "interfere" with the work of the court as it pertained to matters relating to Zuma -- was just "one more symptom" of the overall crisis in the country's criminal justice system.
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