National Assembly questions to South African President Thabo Mbeki have been postponed because the head of state has influenza and has been told by a military doctor ”to rest”, the Director General in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, reported to members of the media at Parliament.
The questions were to have been put to the president on Wednesday afternoon.
Chikane said the question time will be rescheduled after negotiations between the Presidency and Parliament.
The director general emphasised that the president — apart from having flu — is ”perfectly well” and is resting at his official home, Genadendal, in Cape Town. Asked if the president will be attending the ruling African National Congress parliamentary caucus session on Thursday morning, he said an announcement will be made tomorrow [Thursday].
Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete said the Presidency ”has informed me that the president is indisposed due to illness and on doctor’s orders cannot be present in the house today [Wednesday] to reply to questions”.
”As this is the only business before the house [the National Assembly] today, I have cancelled the house sitting for this afternoon. Questions to the president will be rescheduled.”
Chikane, at a media conference, noted that health of the president — and the deputy president — are the responsibility of the surgeon general and a team of military doctors attend to the two of them.
Mbeki was to have faced questions about corruption in his government and whether the ruling party’s succession race is having an impact on government.
Chikane, who emphasised the president is ”not a sickly person”, noted that the written replies are ready but these cannot be released ahead of the rescheduled question time.
Asked by a journalist if it can be interpreted as a diplomatic incident if he did not attend the caucus meeting to avoid problems there on Thursday, Chikane told the journalist: ”You are just so wrong. He can handle anything. That is not a problem. It is not an issue at all.”
This follows the rejection of a report to caucus last week — put to the caucus by chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe — which sought to proclaim loyalty of MPs for Mbeki.
It stated that ”all of us should hold our heads high and proclaim without any fear that yes … we are all President Thabo Mbeki’s people. He is us and we are him.”
Mbeki’s constitutional final term as president ends in 2009 but his post as leader — or president — of the ruling ANC movement comes up for election next year.
He has hinted that he will be available for re-election, which could pit him against current ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma for the leadership. Mbeki dismissed Zuma as the nation’s deputy president last year.
Mbeki must, however, step down as the nation’s president in 2009. He became the nation’s second post-apartheid president in 1999. — I-Net Bridge