South African President Thabo Mbeki should publicly acknowledge the challenge by former deputy president Jacob Zuma for power and object to it as a Zuma presidency would march South African backwards, official opposition leader Tony Leon said on Friday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) leader said in his regular weekly online column, SA Today, that what was needed was “bold, concerted action” around the issues debilitating the country — including the Zuma candidacy for president.
Leon charged that Mbeki was “arrested by the Zuma bid” but he refused to confront the reality directly.
“Mr Mbeki is swiftly becoming a lame-duck president — incapable of moving forward firmly on any issue, whether it be crime or joblessness or HIV/Aids or the worsening catastrophe in Zimbabwe.”
Having announced some time ago he will not seek a third term, ruled out at present by the Constitution, “Mbeki yet refuses to put his weight behind a chosen successor” for the ruling party’s leadership which comes up next year.
This delay was demoralising his supporters, emboldening Zuma and his admirers, and distracting the country from pressing problems.
“Mr Mbeki needs to do something dramatic if he is to save his Presidency, to capture the popular imagination and rally its energies,” charged Leon, who noted that the media kept the Zuma presidential bid alive through its coverage of his “endlessly rolling roadshow”.
“To many South Africans, it seems unconscionable that a man with so dubious a record as Jacob Zuma should have both the government rattled and the nation enthralled. The explanation has as much to do with the weakness in Mbeki’s presidency as the boldness of Zuma’s challenge.”
Leon noted that he had warm personal relations with Zuma “and in Parliament I’ve enjoy his openness and accessibility by contrast with his leader”.
“However, I believe a Zuma presidency would march South Africa backwards into a racially polarised past, undoing much achieved to date in building a stable and inclusive democracy.” – I-Net Bridge