Johannesburg — South African president, Thabo Mbeki, was rushed to hospital Sunday, suffering from breathing problems at the launch of his African National Congress (ANC) party's re-election campaign in the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg.
His spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, told journalists Mbeki was released shortly afterwards, once he had been examined by doctors who were satisfied there was no cause for concern.
"The doctor determined that he had an allergy to what he had eaten," Khumalo said, adding that Mbeki flew back to the capital, Pretoria, as scheduled later Sunday, where he had a further medical examination. Mbeki was expected to resume work, as normal, on Monday and travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday.
A joint statement from the presidency and the Surgeon General confirmed that Mbeki, 61, had taken ill, but reassured the nation the president had recovered.
It was not immediately clear what Mbeki had eaten; but the ANC celebrated its 92nd anniversary Sunday with a giant cake, sporting the party's black, green, yellow and white colours, with a smiling Mbeki presiding over the cake cutting ceremony and posing for the cameras.
Earlier, frequently mopping his brow in the searing KwaZulu Natal heat, Mbeki delivered a 45-minute speech outlining the ANC's political manifesto and the party's record since the last elections in 1999.
Mbeki, who is seeking a second five-year mandate, said the ANC's report card was globally satisfactory, but that the government had to accelerate its battle against poverty and unemployment.
"We rescued an economy in a situation of disaster," he said, noting that South Africa's economy today was prospering and growing. "We inherited a country in which millions of our people were in a situation of despair," he said. "We have changed that situation and made sure that millions of poor people now live in a spirit of hope. Whereas we inherited a population in despair, today we have a population driven by hope". In a festive mood, an estimated thirty thousand ANC supporters crowded into the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg, to hear Mbeki speak. Thousands more followers gathered outside the stadium, following the speech on giant television screens. Joined by Deputy President Jacob Zuma, various ministers and other leading government and party officials, Mbeki danced and sang along to musicians who performed for the occasion.
But there was also serious talk. Mbeki set out what the ANC is calling a new "people's contract" which would tackle the twin evils of unemployment and poverty. He pledged to work harder for the poor and create a million new jobs through an expanded public works' programme, if re-elected.
Over the next 10 years, an additional R100bn (US$15bn) would go on improved infrastructure. Another R15bn (US$2bn) would be spent on the government's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme, which was set up to encourage increased black control of the white-dominated economy, as well as accelerating land reform.
"The government that we'll elect later this year is a government that keeps its promises," Mbeki told the enthusiastic crowd sitting under the hot sun.
But his political opponents in South Africa have already dismissed the ANC's election manifesto. Taking a swipe at Mbeki, a sceptical Patricia de Lille, leader of the recently-formed Independent Democrats' party, criticised the government's record, charging that the ANC had not fulfilled past pledges.
"In 1994, the ANC promised a better life for all," she said. "They seem only to be coming now with the people's contract, but as far as I'm concerned they are (already) in breach of that contract". She described the ANC manifesto as vague, rhetorical and lacking dynamism.
"I will acknowledge that lots of things have changed in this country, although not enough," de Lille said, but "a lot more structural changes (were needed) in the economy to bring about jobs for all in South Africa".
In his speech, Mbeki said it was easy for the opposition to promise the world to voters, because they never had to deliver on their impossible pledges as they did not win elections.
Criticism of Mbeki was not limited to the content of his election manifesto. Before Sunday, opposition leaders protested that the president had not announced a date for the vote, before launching the ANC's re-election bid. They charged that Mbeki has a secret weapon, and the ANC an unfair political advantage, because, as head of the party and head of state, he has the prerogative to declare the election date. By not doing so, they suggested, Mbeki had given his election campaign a head start.
Mbeki told an assembled audience in the port city of Durban on Saturday night, when he formally unveiled the ANC manifesto, that he did not have the slightest idea when the polls would be. There is speculation that the poll will be held in late March or early April to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the official end of apartheid, which took place on April 27.
There was also outrage that the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), provided live coverage of Mbeki's Sunday speech in Pietermaritzburg. The opposition bitterly complained that since he was speaking as the president of the ANC and not as president of the nation, the live broadcast demonstrated political bias by the SABC, which should be impartial, especially in an election year.
"This proposed action has, in effect, already sullied the 2004 election process," said the influential Inkatha Freedom Party in a statement, adding that the SABC was being turned into an "apartheid-style state broadcaster".
Opposition leaders urged the broadcasting company to offer the same political platform to other parties to launch their election manifestos - as well as equitable coverage during the campaign.
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The SABC defended its decision to televise Mbeki's speech, saying it considered the address of national importance "whose message is going to affect everyone in this country".
There were two notable absentees from events in Pietermaritzburg. The first was former president and ANC stalwart, Nelson Mandela, although earlier reports indicated that he would attend. Also missing was any mention of HIV/Aids in Mbeki's speech. The United Nations reports that South Africa is the country with the highest number of people in the world living with the pandemic, and Mbeki has been under fire for his policies on the epidemic.
The ANC chose to launch its re-election campaign in KwaZulu Natal (KZN), the heartland of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and one of only two out of nine provinces in South Africa where the governing party has failed to win outright an absolute majority in the past two polls since the end of white minority rule in 1994. Mbeki hopes to wrest KZN from Inkatha's grip in the 2004 general elections.
KZN was the theatre of bitter political violence in the final years of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Mbeki appealed for a peaceful run-up to the elections, reminding South Africans that "many people died in this province."
"We will do everything in our power to make sure the forthcoming elections are held in conditions of peace." he said. "We must make sure that no one gets intimidated by anyone".
