John Allen
21 September 2008
Cape Town — President Thabo Mbeki formally announced his early resignation in an address televised live in South Africa on Sunday night.
He said he had handed his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the South African Parliament, Baleka Mbete. It would become effective on a date to be determined by the National Assembly.
Shortly before Mbeki's address, a senior official of the ruling African National Congress said on a television panel discussion that the party hoped to announce a candidate for acting president on Monday. ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa also said the party had lost confidence in Mbeki.
In South Africa a new president is elected by Parliament and it is expected that Mbeki's resignation will come into effect once the vote takes place. The ANC's majority guarantees the election of its candidate.
The acting president is likely to serve until a general election due next year, after which the ANC plans to install Jacob Zuma, Mbeki's rival and successor as party leader, as president.
Mbeki, making the television broadcast a day after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) asked him to step down, said that as a loyal party member for 52 years, he respected its decision.
His address was largely devoted to outlining the accomplishments of his administration, including the achievements of his pan-African diplomacy and what he said was "the longest period of sustained economic growth" in the country's history.
However, he acknowledged of the country's growth that "the fruits of these positive results are still to be fully and equitably shared among our people," so that "abject poverty" still existed alongside "extraordinary opulence."
He made only one reference to the issue which the ANC has said triggered the decision to fire him – an announcement last week that national prosecutors and Mbeki's cabinet wanted to contest a court ruling suggesting that he and his ministers had interfered in a decision to prosecute Zuma.
"We have never done this and therefore never compromised the right of the National Prosecuting Authority to decide whom it wished to prosecute and not to prosecute," Mbeki said.
He steps down seven months before the end of his second and final five-year term. During Nelson Mandela's one-term presidency, Mbeki served as deputy president and has been credited with being the principal implementer of the policies of Mandela's administration.
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Maricho, your comments are selfish and short-sighted. I'm also a Zimbabwean and very much appreciated the work done by Mbeki, a foreigner, for very ungrateful Zimbabweans. Mbeki, out of principle and concern for Zimbabwe got involved and we should all thank him for that.
Mbeki, when forced to step down, has done so...that cannot be said of Robert Mugabe or others like him. For that, Mbeki is true to his words, and a "Mighty" African for that matter. Was he perfect? absolutely not, he stood for principals and when given the "boot" he moved out of the way.
Unelected British Prime Minister Brown is just hanging on to power, knowing full well that he cannot win a British election anymore. Who is better? I say President Mbeki.
He actually could be a model for African leaders who loose popular support, that they need to resign!
As a Zimbabwean, I am very, very happy to receive the news of the ousting of Thambo Mbeki, that chirade of a leader who was a botlicker of the dictators on the African continent. Mbeki has sought to protect his tyrant friend Robert Mugabe ever since he came to power in South Africa in 1999. There is an irony in Mbeki that while he plays a democratic in South Africa and accepts to be ousted from power after less than ten years in power, in Zimbabwe he behaves differently and protected Mugabe who has been in power for close to thirty years. We Zimbabweans also want democracy and want to democratically choose our leaders the way it is done in South Africa. We do not want this bloody Mugabe man whom the discredited Mbeki has been forcing down our throats. I hope the new South African leaders who will take over after Mbeki will be level headed and resolve the Zimbabwean political crisis once and for all.