South African lawmakers rubber-stamped President Thabo Mbeki’s resignation on Tuesday, as he attempts to mend his bruised reputation from charges he interfered in the prosecution of rival Jacob Zuma.
The African National Congress-dominated Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of effecting Mbeki’s resignation from Thursday, September 25, with only 10 votes against the motion.
African National Congress (ANC) deputy chief Kgalema Motlanthe was named as the party’s candidate to take over as head of state. Parliament will on Thursday vote on his election, and he will be sworn in later in the day.
Mbeki, who announced his resignation on Sunday after pressure from the ANC, attempted to salvage his reputation in the Constitutional Court, as he challenged a court ruling that he says cost him his job as president.
In a September 12 ruling, Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed a corruption case against Mbeki’s political rival, Zuma, hinting that Mbeki had interfered in the decision to prosecute his foe.
Mbeki (66), who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in June 1999, becomes the country’s first democratically elected president to be forced out of office before the end of his term.
”It is unfair and unjust for me to be judged and condemned on the basis of the findings in the Zuma matter,” said Mbeki in his court application.
”The interests of justice, in my respectful submission, would demand that the matter be rectified,” he added.
”These adverse findings have led to my being recalled by my political party, the ANC — a request I have acceded to as a committed and loyal member of the ANC for the past 52 years,” Mbeki said.
”I fear that if not rectified, I might suffer further prejudice,” he added.
The court ruling that was to prove Mbeki’s final downfall found that the executive might have interfered in the decision to prosecute Zuma, the ANC chief.
”I am not convinced that the applicant [Zuma] was incorrect in averring political meddling in his prosecution,” said Judge Nicholson.
He was ruling on an application by the state to strike out sections of an affidavit filed by Zuma’s legal team that insinuated political interference in the decision to charge him.
Loggerheads
Mbeki had been increasingly at loggerheads with his party — which split into two camps behind him and Zuma — after deciding to run for a third term as party president at a crunch ANC conference in December last year.
Zuma toppled him as chief at the conference, and is the frontrunner to be president after elections in April 2009.
The ruling throwing out corruption charges against Zuma led to a week of heavy political debate, and a lengthy meeting by the ANC executive, who decided on Saturday to ”recall” Mbeki in the interests of party unity.
When announcing his resignation in a live address on Sunday, Mbeki denied he had ”compromised the right of the National Prosecuting Authority [NPA] to decide whom it should prosecute and not prosecute”.
Following Mbeki’s resignation, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad and Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena have also tendered their resignations.
According to Fitch Ratings, Mbeki’s resignation adds a level of political uncertainty to South Africa’s economy, already challenged on both international and domestic fronts.
”The interim president and his or her team will have to carefully manage the transition so as to not worsen already weak investor sentiment and add to macroeconomic risks,” it said.
Motlanthe, who will take over from Thursday as president, is considered a key ANC strategist who has appealed to supporters of both Mbeki and Zuma. — AFP
