Sibongakonke Shoba
25 September 2008
Johannesburg — THERE will probably be as many obituaries on former president Thabo Mbeki's political career, but unlike his predecessor Nelson Mandela, he received mixed reactions from people.
Mbeki will be replaced by African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe today, after being officially in power for more than nine years. Unlike Mandela's dignified exit in 1999, Mbeki's removal was humiliating.
Mandela, before he handed power to Mbeki, was quoted by a Kenyan newspaper in 1999 as having said: "I must step down while there are one or two people who admire me."
However, Mbeki could not borrow those words last Sunday when he delivered his last address on national TV. His party's action of recalling him before his term expired showed that very few of his comrades still admired him.
His comrades, brothers and friends - as they call themselves - used a high court judgment as ammunition to eliminate him last week. The court had found that the president, or the cabinet, had inerfered in the prosecution of ANC president Jacob Zuma.
In his last speech as president, Mbeki denied that he ever interfered in the functioning of the National Prosecuting Authority, and has since filed papers in the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal against this judgment.
Whatever the outcome of the appeal, from today he will be referred to as the former president.
But how will he be remembered?
Prof Shadrack Gutto, of the University of SA's Centre for African Renaissance Studies, says Mbeki was an "intellectual state president".
"We've seen him play a role in the revamp of the thinking of African renaissance."
According to Gutto, the continent needs thinkers, strategists and visionaries like Mbeki.
"He also played a role in the revamp of the African system of governance ... which brought the rejection of people who came to power through unconstitutional means." Mbeki also needs to be applauded for the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the relaunch of the African Union and governance through the African Peer Review Mechanism, Gutto says.
Mbeki was very passionate about Nepad, which is a vision and strategic framework for Africa's renewal, aimed at establishing the conditions for sustainable development, policy reforms and increased investment and mobilising resources to develop the continent.
Through Nepad, Gutto says, Mbeki gave Africa a voice internationally and put SA on the map.
But his leadership style at home seems to have sharpened the axe that chopped his political career into pieces.
Gutto says Mbeki was a workaholic who discomfited many "lazy" people around him.
"Lazy people hardly coped. Then to them he became arrogant because of his impatience with lazy people."
Mbeki was not afraid to engage people on issues and did not just read speeches, but understood the issues very well, Gutto says.
"He was just not a populist leader. Some people feel comfortable with populists so they called him aloof."
He says Mbeki improved the state's performance and pushed for the advancement of gender equality.
"(But) there are areas where he did not communicate well his messages on issues such as poverty and HIV/AIDS."
He says many people did not understand Mbeki's promotion of a nutrition approach on HIV/AIDS treatment, which Mbeki did not say should replace western medicine.
"Communication ... will go down as one of his failures."
He says Mbeki will go down as a leader who had self-confidence and high intellectual capability.
"He had a challenge on how to mobilise people to buy into his understanding, but people will look back and say 'this was a good leader'."
Gutto says although there were questions on Mbeki's involvement in the arms deal, he lived without people pointing fingers at him as there was no evidence of corruption against him. "I think he did not believe in personal accumulation of wealth."
On the other hand, political analyst and former politician Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert says Mbeki made some important shifts, but also made mistakes on HIV/AIDS and poverty.
"He believed there was no scientific proof that HIV caused AIDS and that poverty will alleviate itself when we concentrate on economic growth."
Van Zyl Slabbert says Mbeki was "basically" a president who was not a populist, but a remote and aloof person.
"He was not a hands-on president. He was more into his own head than what other people were thinking ... the way he looked at things, he never took a populist view."
Mbeki's mother, Epainette Mbeki, is proud of her son's legacy.
Early this week she said she was happy with the legacy her son had left, especially with the role he played in mediating a power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe.
She says the international community might perceive his ousting as "unfortunate".
"They (the international community) will look at this differently because of the way he was removed, but not because he is removed."
With Sapa
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