South African President Thabo Mbeki has poked fun at newspaper speculation about his successor, saying two correct predictions had been made.
He stated at the South African Local Government Association conference at a convention centre in Cape Town on Wednesday: ”I have been told that some in our media have very recently been involved in a strange debate evidently to answer the question — what happens when Mbeki goes?!
”I am told that in this context, two correct predictions have been made,” he said, with a hint of a smile.
”One is that in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) will hold its next national conference, which will elect the leadership of the movement, including the president.
”The second is that our country will hold its next general election in 2009… that is a correct prediction … which will also mark the moment when Thabo Mbeki will have to relinquish his position as president of the Republic as stipulated by our national Constitution. That is also a correct prediction.”
Mbeki joked that in the speculation about who would be president ”it is regrettable that none of our mayors and councillors seem to have been mentioned as potential successors!”
ThisDay newspaper speculated on Wednesday that Deputy President Jacob Zuma, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma were frontrunners but it included ”other names” such as Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and businessmen Cyril Ramaphosa and Saki Macozoma as well as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.
Mbeki expressed ”profound appreciation” for the commitments made by British Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Tony Blair at his ruling party’s conference in Brighton — which he said he had watched on television on Tuesday.
”We salute Prime Minister Tony Blair for what he said because the commitment he made to his party, his people and the world, communicated the clear message that the will exists among important sections of the global political leadership to give real meaning to the noble ideal of human solidarity.”
He said when Blair spoke about ”so many human beings [in Africa] live and die in misery when we know that together we could stop it”, he had been speaking about confronting and defeating the legacy of global apartheid.
Mbeki quoted Blair as saying that Britain was now ”committed for the first time in our history to the United Nations’ aid target of 0,7%. Next year as president of the G8 along with action on climate change, we will try for consensus on a new plan for Africa… not only on aid and trade but on conflict resolution, on fighting corruption, on the killer diseases Aids, malaria and TB, on education, water, infrastructure — a plan to lift that continent in hope and lift from ourselves the shame that so many human beings live and die in misery when we know together we could stop it and when unchecked this misery some time, somewhere in the future will threaten us.”
Urging the three tiers of government to work together to solve ”the disparities and imbalances that exist among our municipalities,” Mbeki said within South Africa the issue was confronting and defeating the legacy of domestic apartheid. He said municipal councillors were at the front line of delivery. – I-Net Bridge