South Africa's Mbeki To Address Nation After Agreeing To Resign
September 21, 2008

CAPE TOWN (AFP) — South Africans waited to hear their political future Sunday, as President Thabo Mbeki prepared to address the nation, having agreed to heed calls from his ANC party to step down as president.

Mbeki said on Saturday he would step down "as soon as all constitutional requirements have been fulfilled" after calls by the African National Congress national executive committee for him to go.

Cabinet ministers were set to hold a special meeting convened by Mbeki ahead of his address.

At the meeting, he was expected to ask them not to stay in office for the sake of stability, said Human Sciences Research Council analyst Adam Habib.

Habib told AFP Mbeki would most likely use his public address as a dignified departure speech.

"It could be vintage Mbeki," he added. "One way is to behave in a very dignified way in a way that people remember his speech and say 'Wow', the other is to rage ... accuse comrades in the ANC of betrayal."

Habib said it was almost certain the ANC would install speaker of parliament Baleka Mbete as the interim head-of-state until elections, as the party is not ready to call a poll earlier than those set down for April 2009.

Mbeki i, 66, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in June 1999, had been under pressure since a September 12 court ruling threw out a corruption case against his political rival Jacob Zuma.

The judge appeared to suggest that Zuma's claims that there had been political pressure to pursue the case against him had some foundation -- an allegation that the president's office denied.

Senior ANC officials had gathered Friday to discuss Mbeki's future.

Then on Saturday, after a meeting of the party leadership, the ANC's secretary general Gwede Mantashe told journalists: "The ANC has decided to recall the president of the republic before his mandate has expired."

Government spokesman Themba Maseko announced Sunday afternoon's cabinet meeting and Mbeki live radio and television address.

Zuma was scheduled to make his own television appearance on a current affairs show just before Mbeki's address, the SAPA news agency said quoting state broadcaster SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago.

Under the South African constitution, the president is appointed by parliament, which has been dominated by the ANC since the end of apartheid and the start of majority rule in May 1994.

Mbeki's term had been due to expire in mid-2009.

South Africa's media lost no time in analysing the implications of the decision Sunday. Some analysts said several cabinet ministers might follow Mbeki out of office.

Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya likened the events leading up to Mbeki's enforced departure to a constitutional coup d'etat.

He compared the week's events to those in 1989 when PW Botha, after suffering a stroke, was forced to relinquish power of the white minority ruling National Party to FW De Klerk.

"Today we are seeing similar scenes play themselves out. A once-feared Mbeki is being removed from office by people who had trembled before him."

The September 12 court ruling that all but sealed Mbeki's fate also cleared Zuma of corruption charges, clearing the way for his bid to become South Africa's president in the 2009 election.

The main allegation against Zuma had been that he received bribes for protecting French arms company Thint in an investigation into a controversial weapons deal.

Judge Chris Nicholson said the decision to throw out the case was not a reflection of Zuma's guilt or innocence, but a technical decision based on his right to make representations before being recharged.

On Saturday however, Mantashe insisted the decision to ask Mbeki to stand down had been taken in the interests of party unity.

"This is not a punishment," he said. "We decided to take this decision in an effort to heal and reunite the ANC."

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Source: The Associated Press