President Thabo Mbeki’s sacking on Tuesday of his deputy, Jacob Zuma, has been lauded by opposition parties and economists, while Zuma himself has accepted his fate.
Zuma’s fall from grace will trigger a struggle to succeed Mbeki, and threatens to open a rift in the ANC.
As corruption in Africa comes under the spotlight before the G8 summit, the president had to act quickly to reassure investors.
Tony Leon, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, said: ”We have shown the world that South Africa is not among those nations who allow corruption to unravel the fabric of their country’s soul.”
”What the President did was the brave, correct and principled thing to do.”
Leon added however that the arms deal scandal is still important and called on Mbeki to appoint an independent judge to investigate the issue. Leon warned the ”president must not be satisfied that the arms deal problem is now solved”.
The Inkatha Freedom Party, the United Democratic Movement, the African Christian Democratic Party, the Independent Democrats and the Freedom Front Plus also said they supported Mbeki’s decision.
Speaking to reporters at Tuynhuys after Mbeki’s pronouncement, Zuma emphasised that although he would — and had — given up elected positions in Parliament and government, he would remain on as deputy president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), a position to which he was elected in 1997 — prior to his elevation to the deputy presidency of the country in 1999.
”I have been tried by the media and in effect found guilty by a court in absentia. I have not been given an opportunity in an appropriate forum to defend myself against the allegations made. Yet our Constitution states that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
Mbeki himself had said similar things: ”We are of the firm view that this principle applied to the deputy president not merely as a matter of principle and common decency … unambiguous as the judgement [in the trial of Zuma’s financial adviser Schabir Schaik] may be about an assumed unsavoury relationship, the deputy president has yet to have his day in court.”
But he had, nevertheless, opted to axe him with the words: ”I have come to the conclusion that the circumstances dictate that in the interest of the honourable deputy president, the government, our young democratic system, and our country, it would be best to release the honourable Jacob Zuma from his responsibilities as deputy president of the republic and member of the Cabinet.”
Zuma was asked at the press conference whether he was prepared to go to court if he was charged.
He replied that when a person is charged ”you don’t have a choice”.
He said he would welcome the chance to be given the opportunity to ”put [across] my side of the story”.
He was not prepared, however, to talk about his relationship with Shaik and allegations that he — Zuma — benefited from bribes in South Africa’s controversial arms deal. He said it would be ”unfair to comment” on a matter still being considered.
”Let me reiterate that my conscience is clear,” he said.
Asked if anything had happened that precluded him standing for the presidency or deputy presidency of the ANC, he said: ”I don’t think there is anything precluding me if the ANC thought that I needed to be put [in] as a deputy president.”
Pressed if that applied to the presidency, he said that was the case with ”any position” in the party.
Former president Nelson Mandela said he was saddened by Zuma’s departure, but supported Mbeki’s decision.
”While we are naturally deeply saddened that a person who had made such a major contribution to our liberation and democracy had to come to this point in his life and career, we fully support the president in this difficult time in the life of our government, nation and organisation,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.
Despite the day’s political theatre — a drama which perhaps has not been visited in South Africa since the axing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as deputy welfare minister by then President Nelson Mandela — Zuma had time to crack a joke or two. He asked reporters if they would be happy if he presented his statement in Zulu.
He significantly did not question the authority of Mbeki. Instead he said he would like to extend ”my deepest and sincere gratitude to President Mbeki who gave me an opportunity to be his deputy and which whom I have shared many years of comradeship and work in the struggle under very difficult conditions”.
And the punch-line was: ”I look forward to continuing to work with him as his deputy in the African National Congress in the reconstruction and development of our country.”
He could now face a trial. Asked how he would cope without being a deputy president or even possibly not an MP, he said that when he was born he had none of those positions.
I-Net Bridge correspondent Donwald Pressly writes that the likelihood of Zuma bouncing back into formal politics may seem remote and at the moment Mbeki has put his stamp on proceedings. There was not a dissenting voice in Parliament on Tuesday once the axe had fallen.
Zuma will have to play a careful chess game in ANC structures to make a political comeback. At present Mbeki — and the more conservative wing of the ANC — has snatched the upper hand. The left wing — in the form of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the ANC youth league — appear to have backed the wrong horse.
Mbeki has acted — in contrast to his wishy-washiness over Zimbabwe and HIV/Aids — in a presidential and sober manner and became on Tuesday what his detractors said he was not — a man with a steel backbone, acting in the interests of the nation as well as his party.
The high court in Durban found Shaik paid Zuma in return for government contracts and solicited a bribe from French arms firm Thint Holdings to pay Zuma. In return, he was meant to deflect inquiries about a 1999 arms sale. The national prosecuting authority said it was considering a further investigation.
The court found Shaik paid R1,2-million to Zuma to fund a lavish lifestyle. Testimony showed he was always short of money and relied on Shaik to build a luxurious house and pay school fees.
”Instead of just stabilising the situation and managing Zuma’s chaotic finances so debts could be paid off, Shaik made it possible for Zuma to continue living beyond his means without anyone knowing the quid pro quo [Shaik] would ask for,” Judge Squires said. ”No sane or rational businessman would conduct his business on such a basis without expecting some benefit.”
Mbeki, who has pledged to stamp out corruption, said on Tuesday he continued to hold Zuma in ”high regard”.
”We have worked together under difficult conditions for 30 years,” the president said.
He thanked him for services rendered and ”sparing neither strength nor effort” to ensure ”a better life for all South Africans”.
Mbeki is required under South African law to step down at the end of his second presidential term in 2009 and Zuma had been widely expected to succeed him. The president did not immediately announce a replacement.
The ANC’s national chairperson and defence minister, Mosiuoa Lekota, is the most likely successor. Another candidate is the foreign minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Zuma’s former wife.
Zuma, a Zulu, mediated between the ANC and the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom party in the early 1990s to head off a potential civil war. He joined the ANC’s military wing in the 60s and rose through the ranks. He was imprisoned for 10 years on Robben Island and spent many more years in exile. It was there that he befriended Shaik who was known as the ”ANC’s banker.”
Decision will ‘play extremely well internationally’
Richard Calland, a political analyst and executive director of the Open Democracy Centre, told the Mail & Guardian Online shortly after Mbeki’s speech that the decision shows that the government will not tolerate corruption.
He said the decision ”plays extremely well internationally”.
”It is going to ensure that [the] high standards of public life are maintained no matter how senior the official is that perpetrated the wrongdoing. There is no doubt that it’s an important day -‒ the most important moment since 1994 — and if this is followed up with consistent and repeated action … it augers well for the future,” he said.
He said the decision will set the tone for those at the very top of government and ”enable the political will to combat corruption to seep down to all levels of government and therefore bolster other champions for accountable government”. – Guardian Unlimited Â