The Jacob Zuma saga has forced President Thabo Mbeki into the zugzwang chess position, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said in his weekly letter on Friday.
”This is a position in which a player has to move but he can only do so with loss or severe disadvantage. So, while the nation and the world wait for his move, he has no good place to go,” Leon said.
He said Deputy President Zuma does not intend to resign on his own — a position he made clear in his evasive performance in Parliament this week.
And if Mbeki dismisses Zuma, as he should, he will face the wrath of major constituencies in his party, Leon predicted.
But he argued that if Mbeki does not dismiss Zuma or passes the buck to the judiciary by waiting for the appeal process to unfold, he will have failed the nation, the Constitution and the expectations of the wider world.
”If Zuma stays in office, the ANC [African National Congress] will have broken its contract [People’s Contract]. The shadow of illegitimacy will fall across the Presidency and the entire government. The only way to save the government’s image at home and abroad is for Zuma to resign or be dismissed,” he said.
Leon said Zuma should be seen as more accountable to the people than to the judiciary, as he was elected by the people, not the judiciary, and therefore should not hide behind his ”innocent until proven guilty” stance.
”Jacob Zuma was not placed in office by the judiciary. He was appointed by the president, who was in turn elected by Parliament, whose members were elected by the voters,” he said.
He said not only does Zuma have to obey the law and uphold his oath to the republic and the Constitution, but he also has to honour his ”contractual obligation” to the people.
Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Wednesday after being convicted of fraud and theft involving improper financial dealings with the deputy president.
Judge Hillary Squires ruled that the men had a ”generally corrupt” relationship, and found Shaik guilty of soliciting a R500 000-a-year bribe for Zuma from French arms company Thomson-CSF in return for protection from a probe into South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms deal.
Numerous opposition political parties have since called for Zuma to quit or be fired.
No word from Mbeki
Meanwhile, reports Mariette le Roux, as some media and opposition politicians called for Mbeki to pronounce on Zuma’s fate, there was no sign by Friday when this would happen.
”I don’t know,” said presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo, asked when Mbeki is expected to make an announcement.
Asked if the issue still needs to be discussed, Khumalo said: ”I don’t know how the matter will be handled.”
Earlier this week, government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said Mbeki would ”communicate to the public any decisions that he will have taken on the matter” as soon as practicable after his return from a state visit to Chile.
Mbeki returned on Thursday morning. After spending two days in Cape Town, he was expected to return to Pretoria over the weekend, and to leave for Qatar on a two-day state visit on Monday evening.
In an editorial, The Star newspaper said on Friday that Africa and the world are awaiting Mbeki’s ”big decision”.
The time has come for Africa to demonstrate it is serious about improving governance and weeding out corruption — especially in light of the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations, which is due to consider proposals to scrap the continent’s debt and increase aid, it said.
”And that must apply especially to Mbeki, the arch-champion of Nepad [the New Partnership for Africa’s Development] and the African renaissance,” the newspaper said. ”South Africa will not be alone in awaiting his big decision over Zuma.”
Beeld said the Constitution, political tradition and South Africa’s commitment to honest, unimpeachable political management place an onus on Zuma, as deputy president, to be beyond reproach.
The newspaper also referred to the need for Africa to be seen to be shaking off its ”corrupt customs”, and that it can be trusted with investments.
‘Zuma must vooma!’
The Mail & Guardian called for the deputy president to go with the words: ”Zuma must vooma!”
”The pro-Zuma backlash is using revolutionary language. Yet it has the contrary purpose — it seeks to denigrate all the democratic revolutionary fruit the ANC itself has helped to harvest,” it said.
The Pretoria News said the politics surrounding the matter will present the Mbeki administration and Parliament with a severe test.
”The choices are stark and, whatever the outcome, the effects are going to reach deeply into the body politic of South Africa.”
The Citizen newspaper expressed sympathy for Mbeki for the decision he needs to take.
It said Zuma is unsuitable to be deputy president, but added: ”No matter how convincing the case against Zuma is on moral, legal or constitutional grounds, the political terrain resembles a minefield.”
Mbeki can clearly not remove Zuma without a fight, considering the deputy president has ”substantial” allies, the Citizen said.
With Zuma apparently more popular than Mbeki, the president could cause an ”almighty rumpus” in the ANC if he were to act as swiftly as many are demanding.
”Therefore we expect a slow, methodical exit for Zuma,” the newspaper said. ”But he must go, or Mbeki’s legacy as Africa’s leading light will be ruined.” — Sapa