Word: mbeki
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...days as a guerrilla movement. But if the run-up to December's vote is anything to go by, the process of choosing South Africa's next President is set to one of the loudest and most open elections in African history. The race to succeed President Thabo Mbeki when his second term ends in 2009 has divided the ANC: One camp is led by Mbeki himself, who is constitutionally barred from a third term - but is still considering whether to find a way to run again, or to throw his weight behind a designated successor. Mbeki certainly hopes...
...closed doors, with the leadership maintaining a united front in public. This time, it's anything but. The two rivals and their supporters have been tearing into each other via the newspapers - albeit via anonymous leaks - for years. And then there were the two 2005 court cases that gave Mbeki cause to fire a man who had become increasingly vocal in his criticism, from the left, of the direction of the ANC government. The corruption charges relating to an arms contract were later withdrawn, and he was cleared of the rape charge - but not before a series of embarrassing revelations...
...Sure enough, lately it has been Mbeki's turn to feel the heat. Some of it, to be fair, has been his own doing: In August, he caused outrage by sacking the well-respected Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. She had taken steps to restore some credibility to South Africa's HIV/AIDS program, which had suffered under her boss, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, best known for her recommendation of garlic and beetroot as AIDS treatments. And Mbeki himself has expressed skepticism that HIV causes AIDS. But Madlala-Routledge's true crime, say close observers, was lack of loyalty...
...Last week, however, Mbeki's troubles escalated into what the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a key ANC ally that has officially endorsed Zuma, calls a "major constitutional crisis." On Sept. 23, Mbeki suspended the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Vusi Pikoli, who also oversees an elite investigative unit known as "the Scorpions." This time, Mbeki was happy to cite an "irretrievable breakdown" of relations between Pikoli and his boss, the justice minister. The real reason for the firing, say Mbeki's opponents, was Pikoli's delay in reinstating the corruption charges against Zuma...
...Zuma, 65, is currently the only political figure in South Africa who has openly declared an interest in succeeding President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki ends his second term as President in 2009, and the constitution bars him from a third. This year Mbeki also finishes his second term as president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). And should Zuma succeed Mbeki at the ANC's annual conference in December - the incumbent hasn't yet decided whether he'll stand again - his elevation to the highest office in 2009 would be all but assured. Hence politics in South Africa is increasingly...