Official opposition deputy finance spokesperson Pierre Rabie said he was certain that President Thabo Mbeki would avoid the Zimbabwe issue in his State of the Nation speech on Friday — what Mbeki’s Director General Frank Chikane described as one of the four “Hs”: Harare (capital of Zimbabwe), Hefer, HIV, and Haiti.
The President is expected to focus on the creation of jobs and on incentives for small and medium-sized business in his speech.
Rabie said he believed the president would provide some concessions to micro and medium-sized business to generate economic growth and stimulate job creation. He would also provide detail of the extended public works programme to produce a million new jobs.
“I believe (Finance Minister Trevor) Manuel and (Trade and Industry Minister) Alec Erwin are not paying enough attention to the small business sector and the president may add impetus (here),” said Rabie.
Turning to the question of the two-term limit of the president — as well as premiers — Rabie said this was also an issue the president would not discuss “but I hope he will be bold enough to say he will not be president for life”.
Earlier this week at the Cape Town Press Club Chikane indicated that Mbeki did not regard this as a matter of debate — outside of media and opposition parties circles.
It was clear that Mbeki would not mention the issue but Chikane noted that there was a constitutional two-term limit on the president — which would expire in 2009.
Meanwhile Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) finance spokesperson Gavin Woods said the only issue he thought would be important in the speech was to give substance to Mbeki’s undertaking to create a million jobs through the public works programme. “It will be tactically clever especially with the election looming,” said Woods.
Woods thought the president would tackle HIV-Aids and the anti-retroviral roll-out. He also expected Mbeki not to talk about the other “H” — Harare.
Chikane said that the media’s chosen flavours of the month might be — in one-liner parlance — the four “Hs”.
He said “We (the presidency) believe we can hold our own in any reasonable debate” on these issues. On HIV/Aids “where it is widely recognised that South Africa had one of the biggest and most comprehensive programmes — in Africa and the world — to combat it”.
On the Hefer Commission, he said the judge’s report into spying allegations against the National Director of Public Prosecutions “demonstrated South Africa’s commitment to open inquiry, even in areas which are very sensitive, where this can also be tough on people in and close to power”.
On Haiti, the government’s actions “despite some hostile, sensational and misinformed communication by media and politicians” had helped create a climate for better days in an historically exploited place. The president’s trip to the troubled Haiti recently caused a flurry of comment by the opposition.
On the Harare issue — referring to the situation in troubled Zimbabwe — Chikane said: “Where there is, we maintain, the real prospect of full-scale talks between the political opponents to find a lasting solution for the problems of Zimbabwe”.
He hinted that Mbeki could focus to a great degree in his speech on South Africa’s role in continental diplomacy and on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
Chikane also hinted that the drop in crime figures would also be a matter for the president’s attention.
Democratic Alliance MP and former Financial Mail editor Nigel Bruce said: “I expect that person (the president) to be suitably magisterial … with more promises to keep the promises he hasn’t kept.”
Mbeki is scheduled to announce an election date for Parliament and the National Assembly at the end of the debate on his speech next Wednesday February 11.- I-Net Bridge