Word: mbeki
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South African president Thabo Mbeki'sfailure to get re-elected as head of the country's ruling party underlines just how much the leaders who ran the struggle against apartheid under Nelson Mandela have lost touch with their roots. At the annual conference of the African National Congress (ANC), in the northern city of Polokwane, Jacob Zuma, 65, was elected party chief with a 61%-to-39% split on Dec. 18. Now that Zuma has unseated his bitter rival and former boss, his supporters expect him to complete Mbeki's humiliation by replacing him as head of state...
Zuma's political career has boomeranged from bigwig to pariah and back. Mbeki sacked him as Deputy President in 2005 when Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of soliciting a bribe for him in a French arms deal. Related charges were filed against Zuma on Dec. 14. And though he was acquitted in a rape trial in 2006, his testimony revealed shocking attitudes about sex and AIDS, including an admission that he had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman but showered afterward to reduce the risk of infection...
...Despite his victory over Mbeki in the race for the party leadership, it is not yet certain that Zuma will in fact become President of the country when Mbeki's term expires - despite the fact that the ANC's electoral majority remains unassailable. Although he has now attained pole position in the race to succeed Mbeki, Zuma would be barred from standing for President if he is convicted of corruption before the election. (If he becomes President before a case comes to court, he would be immune from prosecution until he left office.) A Zuma conviction would leave...
...Political analyst Professor Adam Habib told South Africa's Business Day newspaper, "[Mbeki] should have spoken from the heart, and acknowledged some of the blame. He said someone else was to blame. With this, he cemented the divisions...
...President's aloof and distant style will soon fade into the ANC's past, but its failure under his leadership to redress the country's growing economic apartheid could dog the party for years to come. Mbeki has presided over eight years of economic boom in South Africa, and the country is predicted to grow by around 5% for the next five years. But the poor have hardly benefited. Official unemployment figures stand at 26%, and a November study by South Africa's Institute for Race Relations found the numbers of people living on less than $1 a day rose...