The Mbeki junction
Well I come back to South Africa from China to find all hell has broken loose. Mbeki being forced out is really a stupid thing for the ANC to do. Why couldn’t they have just left him there to complete his term?
The events of late have got many people worried. Last night I was speaking to a number of friends about it and for the most part they are very unhappy - even though they are not fans of Mbeki at all!
Most are worried that this is the beginning of our decline into Zimbabweism where we have a president (Zuma) who is power hungry and will do anything to get his power and then hang on to it.
As another friend also said, we could also be looking at the ANC splitting into two parties. Most people would think that this is a good thing, but my friend thinks that it will just promote a civil war between the factions. If a civil war does not break out then at least we can have a greater diversity in parliament after next years elections.
The next few weeks are going to be interesting and should give us a guideline on what to expect in the future. Will the ministers that are pro-Mbeki remain in their jobs or will they be ferreted out in a witch hunt? What about the provincial premiers who were handpicked by Mbeki? If they all get forced out, we can expect a lot more purging to take place amongst the rank-and-file too.
On the positive side, With all this in-fighting of the ANC, I really hope that people like Manto get given the boot!
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September 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
JS,
Thanks for his view full of insight. The timing is also strange to me, but a day in poltics can become long.
I guess that if you play politics against someone who later gets more influence than you, you will somehow have to face pay day.
Let’s hope you’re wrong about Zimbabweism, but I guess we should be realistic.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Everything is just happening exactly as we predicted all along, from 1994. This did not come as a surprise to me. It is just the detail about it that was unknown. What bothers me about Mbeki, is the fact that he just accepts all of this and hand in his resignation. Only a pathetic demur of the statements was made. Now let me tell you, a person such as Mbeki, that was exposed to the powerful position of president for 9 + years and still addicted to it, will not just give up that rave of power. There must be something very valid to rather make this arrangement of resignation. That, in my opinion, is not what most people expect to be the misuse of influence to preserve power as he was accused of, but rather a backdoor to exit the possibility of prosecution from Zuma’s side. Zuma did in fact threat to expose others involved in similar offences. Considering that, it would be much better for him to leave office in an upright way. That could be the only explanation why he did not reject this and combat his cling to power. It all, obviously, works out for the good of Zuma. It is just again yet another example of their self-centred way of thinking. This is not about the country at all. We as SA citizens will be the ones exposed to the product of negativity as a result of their personal endeavours. I will not accept this anymore. The management of this county became a circus and I will not be part of that.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Wow, I was a bit fast to jump to conclusions about Mbeki. He filed papers with ConCourt on Monday in an application for leave to appeal against a Pietermaritzburg High Court judgement on J Zuma. That means he is either (1) completely innocent and wish to set right his damaged image, or (2) he wish to maintain his cling to power.