Mbeki says judge got key fact wrong

THABO Mbeki last night gave his last major public address as president of South Africa after being forced to resign on Saturday – and said the high court judge whose ruling triggered his political demise had got the most crucial fact wrong.

Mr Mbeki was plunged into a fight for his reputation and political life 11 days ago when Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed corruption and fraud charges against his bitter rival, Jacob Zuma. The judge said Mr Mbeki may have interfered with the prosecution process.

An unsmiling Mr Mbeki said in a television address to the nation he had "categorically" never interfered in the work of the constitutionally independent National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), including "the painful matter" of Mr Zuma's case.

If Mr Mbeki and his supporters can prove their version of events is true, it would follow that he has been toppled on a false premise that would destabilise South African politics.

The NPA has appealed against the 200-page ruling delivered by the judge. The appeal hearings alone will cause huge political controversy, and if successful could open the way for a new prosecution against Mr Zuma.

Baleka Mbete, speaker of South Africa's parliament, will be named today as the country's first female head of state. She will serve as interim president until scheduled parliamentary elections next May, when Mr Zuma and his supporters expect him to become president.

Mr Mbeki, 66, had been in power for nine years as successor to Nelson Mandela, the country's first black president.

Before the broadcast, Mr Mbeki convened his last cabinet meeting. Many of his ministers are expected to submit their resignations in solidarity.

Judge Nicholson's contentious ruling had exposed Mr Mbeki to volleys of wounding arrows from his enemies. Those foes were fellow comrades in the African National Congress, which historically and rhetorically has put unity and solidarity above all other values but which is now bitterly divided by in-fighting.

Mr Mbeki agreed to resign after the top officials of his party on the ANC's national executive committee asked him on Saturday to step down.

Announcing Mr Mbeki's overthrow, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the decision had been made in the interests of the stability of the country and the unity of the ANC.

But Helen Zille, leader of the opposition, said the move "has nothing to do with unity". He said it had "everything to do" with multiple bribes Mr Zuma is alleged to have taken in relation to South Africa's £5.2 billion arms deal with European weapons manufacturers.

While there have been few regrets expressed about Mr Mbeki's departure, there is widespread apprehension about life under Mr Zuma if he becomes South Africa's president.

Mr Mbeki became internationally known for his controversial views on Aids, joining maverick scientists who denied the HIV virus was the cause of the illness. He led the resistance to anti-retroviral treatment.

With some six million South Africans HIV-positive and 1,000 dying from Aids-related illnesses each day, human rights campaigner and ANC member Zachie Asmat, said: "I would have liked to see him impeached for causing the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV; for the corruption of the arms deal; for the undermining of every independent state institution."

Meanwhile, last night Mondli Makhanya, the editor of South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, warned: "We do not know where we are going.

"Zuma and the leadership of the ANC are not in control of their support base.

"Party meetings are akin to pub brawls."

PROFILE

SOUTH Africa yesterday began preparations to install Baleka Mbete, described in one newspaper as "hard as nails, with the survival skills of an alley cat", as the country's first woman president.

Ms Mbete, 59, currently the Speaker of the parliament in Cape Town, will take over some time this week after Thabo Mbeki resigns, although it is likely Jacob Zuma will return following next May's elections.

Ms Mbete trained as a teacher before going into exile to work for the ANC during the apartheid era. She returned in 1990 and was elected an MP after the country's first all-race elections in 1994. She has three sons and two daughters by her former husband, a poet named Keorapetse Kgositsile.

Her detractors describe her as authoritarian, autocratic and haughty. Last year, she suspended Mike Waters, an opposition MP, after he tried to ask questions about a theft conviction for Mr Mbeki's controversial health minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. "The queen of South Africa. That's the role she sees for herself," Mr Waters said.

In 1997, was she found to have acquired a driving licence fraudulently but was never prosecuted.

How reversal of fortunes in arms deal scandal led to change at the top

ALLEGATIONS that kickbacks were paid to top ANC figures by British and other European Union weapons manufacturers in connection with a £5.2 billion deal to renew South Africa's military arsenal were first made in 1999 by the feisty opposition MP Patricia de Lille.

She later received death threats and the parliamentary inquiry she demanded was turned down by the then vice-president, Jacob Zuma.

Andrew Feinstein, the ANC MP and public watchdog who put his safety and career on the line by supporting Ms de Lille, resigned in disgust and fled to Britain. Mr Zuma poured scorn on him, accusing him of "besmirching the good name" of the world's leading arms companies and of showing contempt for the foreign governments who had underpinned their deals.

When Mr Zuma's close friend and financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on charges of fraud and corruption in connection with the arms deal, the vice-president's name ran like a silver thread through the charge sheets. The judge concluded that Shaik had paid nearly 800 bribes to Mr Zuma and that the vice-president had sought an annual retainer from a French arms company to suppress parliamentary inquiries and to promote the company's interests in cabinet.

Thabo Mbeki sacked Mr Zuma, and protracted efforts to prosecute him began, ending with the contentious 200-page dismissal 12 days ago by Judge Chris Nicholson of the Zuma prosecution on technical grounds and on the suspicion that Mr Mbeki may have illegally intervened in the prosecution process.

Fortunes were dramatically reversed. Mr Zuma, who had seemed set to face destruction by the arms scandal, was on his way to become president of South Africa, and Mr Mbeki was on his way out.