Mbeki Fights Back
September 23, 2008

OUSTED president Thabo Mbeki has lodged an application to challenge a Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling that inferred he had interfered with the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to charge ANC president Jacob Zuma.

The application, brought in the Constitutional Court a day after Mbeki tendered his resignation — having been forced to do so by the ANC’s national executive committee — indicates the ousted leader’s determination not to go down without a fight.

Mbeki was “recalled” by the ANC executive at the weekend, following last week’s finding by Judge Chris Nicholson that Mbeki and his cabinet might have interfered in the prosecuting authority’s decision to charge Zuma with corruption and fraud. Zuma successfully applied to have the charges against him dropped on the basis that the process was constitutionally flawed.

In his judgment, Nicholson went further and said the only inference that could be drawn, in the absence of any other competing theory, was that Mbeki and his cabinet were involved in a political conspiracy against Zuma.

Mbeki’s decision to challenge Nicholson’s ruling is likely to anger ANC leaders, who had hoped his resignation would bring the Zuma legal crisis to an end and stop the prosecuting authority and cabinet from appealing the judgment.

His decision also came on the day the ANC sought to win back public confidence in the party by announcing plans to name a caretaker president by Thursday. The ANC caucus in parliament officially nominated party deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe as its candidate for acting president.

The Times can reveal that Motlanthe will name housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu as his deputy. Mbeki’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, yesterday confirmed that the ousted leader had filed papers at the Constitutional Court.

“He seeks to appeal part of the judgment that makes claims of political interference [by Mbeki] on the NPA,” he said.

ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte refused to comment on Mbeki’s move, saying only it was the ANC’s “understanding that Mbeki has the right to do so”. Earlier in the day, Zuma, too, had defended Mbeki’s right to dispute the contents of Nicholson’s judgment.

Addressing a media conference yesterday, Zuma effectively confirmed that Motlanthe would be named caretaker president when he twice mentioned his deputy by name as being “equal to the task” of leading the government.

“We have in cabinet many experienced ministers, including … Motlanthe. I am convinced that, if given that responsibility, he would be equal to the task,” Zuma said, smiling broadly. At the end of the briefing, Motlanthe was mobbed by ANC well-wishers, who congratulated him on his imminent appointment.

The NEC decision to appoint Motlanthe as caretaker president came as a surprise to many within the ANC who had been told that the speaker of the National Assembly and ANC chair, Baleka Mbete, would take over from Mbeki.

But during the last session of the executive committee’s meeting on Sunday, several party stalwarts — including cabinet ministers Pallo Jordan and Zola Skweyiya — told the meeting the choice of Mbeki’s replacement needed to be debated before a final decision was made.

It is understood many felt that removing Mbete as speaker would unnecessarily destabilise parliament and that her skills and experience were still needed in the National Assembly.

According to two party insiders, it was also felt that appointing her as acting president could attract “negative press”, with journalists focusing on her past involvement in a driver’s licence scandal.

It is not clear who put forward Motlanthe’s name, but people who were at the meeting say Zuma was one of the most vocal backers of his appointment. Zuma’s inner circle says it hopes Motlanthe’s appointment will help ease fears of a rift between the two men. Some of the ANC president’s backers were now suspicious of his deputy, they said.

For Motlanthe’s deputy, the executive settled on Sisulu, a staunch Zuma ally. But the party has opted not to make the decision public until it has been informed officially of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s intention to resign. Mlambo-Ngcuka apparently handed Mbeki her resignation letter during an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday, but the president refused to accept it.

Mbeki told his cabinet to stay on as his being recalled was not about governance. He is understood to have said: “This is about me. It is personal, it has nothing to do with government.”

Yesterday, presidential staff members were removing paintings from Tuynhuys, the presidential office in Cape Town. One of the paintings was a portrait of Mbeki’s mentor, Oliver Tambo.

A staff member said Mbeki’s portrait of Tambo was smaller than the one carried out, which, he said, belonged to Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Mbete yesterday read Mbeki’s resignation letter to parliament. This was followed by ANC chief whip Nathi Mthethwa’s notice without motion urging the house to accept the resignation, making it effective on September 25. The motion paved the way for parliament to nominate and elect Motlanthe.

__

Source: The Associated Press