Given how most African countries are ruled by tyrants and dictators, there is no doubt that those who love democracy in Africa would proclaim Mbe’s honor. He has given South Africa that preminent position for advancing the cause of democracy in Africa, by heeding the demands of the electorate as represented by elected officials of the African National Congress.
On ther other hand, his sacking is demeaning and smells of vendetta - it didn’t show statesmanship on the part of Jacob Zuma. Why continuing to kick a man who is already down? Thabo Mbeki was due to step down as President after the elections in April, 2009. Why was the rush in having him removed except as an vindictive payback, notwithstanding what this would do internationally to the interests of South Africa. It was a bad judgment call.
On Sunday September 22, the news flashed that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa had decided to step down immediately from the presidency after formal actions had been met. Despite the tumultuous events which had preceded the announcement, it was nevertheless a shock to most observers of the South African situation. Mbeki had received a vote of no-confidence from the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, the ruling party in South Africa. “I have handed a letter to the speaker of the national assembly, Baleka Mbete, to tender my resignation from the high position of President of the Republic of South Africa on a day that will be determined by the National Assembly.”
Archbishop emeritus of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, slammed the decision of the ANC to force out Mbeki. “"I am deeply disturbed by recent events in our beloved county. The so-called recalling of the President of our land fits the pattern of the settling of scores and the throwing about of weight that has happened post-Polokwane.
“ Why sack two Premiers with only a few months of their terms left to run and then to re-employ one of them in the Presidency if it is not to prove that there are new cocks of the walk?
“Why humiliate the nation’s President in this fashion like the two Premiers with only a few months of his term of office left and that without giving him the chance to respond to any charges that the NEC might have laid?”
Tutu went to praise the achievements of Mbeki. “"President Mbeki has scored many significant achievements in our economy and in promoting peace in Africa, most recently in Zimbabwe. But he has made many enemies even within his party for his intolerance of challenges and dissent. South Africa puzzled many of our friends by odd foreign policy decisions that betrayed our history on his watch. Those enemies have got their revenge and are gloating as they rub his nose in the mud.”
He then accused Mbeki’s opponent’s of vendetta, arrogance and especially hypocrisy. “"There is nothing principled about that. It is good old fashioned tit for tat. It is arrogant, cynical opportunism, that at one moment they can, when judges find against them, call the judges ‘part of a counter-revolution’ and when they do find in their favour represent ‘judicial triumph’.”
Mbeki had come into office on June 22, 1999, after icon Nelson Mandela hand-picked him to succeed him as President. He had been elected President by parliament after the ANC won an landslide election with 66.4 percent of the vote. “This day is as much a day for the inauguration of the new government as it is a day of salute for a generation that pulled our country out of the abyss and placed it on the pedestal of hope on which it rests today,” Mbeki told the crowd.
The then 57 year old president came into office promising to fight and lower unemployment, which at that time exceeded 40 percent. “No night can be restful when millions have no jobs, and some are forced to beg, to rob and to murder to ensure that they and their own do not perish from hunger,” Mbeki said.
Unfortunately, it seems he must have forgotten his vows to the poor, having precipitated the greatest boom in creating a burgeoning middle class in South Africa, as well as some ultra-rich individuals. Crime rate is still one of the highest in South Africa, blamed xenophobically on foreigners.
A certified intellectual with a brilliant mind, who has articulated coherently the “African Renaissance,” Mbeki, according to the New York Times of June 4, 1999, is Mr. John Adams to Mandela’s George Washington. “If Nelson Mandela is the George Washington of this new democracy, the kind of giant among men who turns down offers to be king, then Mr. Mbeki is its John Adams. Like Adams, he is small, sharply intelligent, visionary, reflective, sometimes tart-tongued, and an adept back-room fighter.”
After assuming office as President, he appointed Jacob Zuma as his Deputy President. Then came the scandal of Mr. Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, which appeared to implicate Zuma, and Mbeki sacked Zuma. Mbeki attributed the reason for sacking as being in the light of the need “to defend South Africa’s young democracy. “It would be best to release Jacob Zuma from his responsibilities.” Zuma went on to shock the world with an admission that he had consensual sex with a woman and a family friend, who he knew was HIV positive, but confessed that he took a bath after the sex so that he wouldn’t be infected rather than use a condom.
But it is the financial scandal, which has gone through all kinds of trials, that has eventually doomed Mbeki’s presidency.
It would be recalled that Mbeki and Zuma battled each other for supremacy as president of the African National Congress, a move which was seen by party stalwarts as Mbeki hanging on to find a way of extending his presidency to a third-term, which he denied. In an acrimonious African National Congress meeting in Polokwane (Pretoria), Mr. Zumba soundly defeated Mr. Mbeki to become the ANC President, a post Mr. Mbeki had held for seven years and wanted to continue holding it. The vote was 2,329 for Zumba to President Mbeki’s 1,505.
With animosity festering towards Mbeki because of the “vindictive” way he had treated Zuma, who is loved by party stalwarts, and a white judge ruling that there had been some interference from the government regarding Zuma’s trial, Mbeki’s opponents in the party wasted no time in asking him to step down.
In a meeting of the African National Congress executive committee, despite denying any hands in interfering with Zuma’s trial, party executives voted to sack him. Rather than face the humiliation of being sacked publiclym Mr. Mbeki decided to step down on the 22nd September, 2008.
Given how most African countries are ruled by tyrants and dictators, there is no doubt that those who love democracy in Africa would proclaim Mbe’s honor. He has given South Africa that preminent position for advancing the cause of democracy in Africa, by heeding the demands of the electorate as represented by elected officials of the African National Congress.
On ther other hand, his sacking is demeaning and smells of vendetta - it didn’t show statesmanship on the part of Jacob Zuma. Why continuing to kick a man who is already down? Thabo Mbeki was due to step down as President after the elections in April, 2009. Why was the rush in having him removed except as an vindictive payback, notwithstanding what this would do internationally to the interests of South Africa. It was a bad judgment call.
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