Word: mbeki
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Jackie Selebi, the former South African ambassador to the U.N. and head of Interpol, finally went on trial in Johannesburg on Oct. 5 after nearly two years of court delays. A close ally of former President Thabo Mbeki, Selebi is the most senior member of the governing African National Congress (ANC) to go to trial on corruption charges, accused of accepting bribes from a tycoon murder suspect, Glenn Agliotti, and his associates in 2004 and 2005. The case is being seen as a critical test of South Africa's judicial system. Since being elected President in April, Jacob Zuma...
...firstly we were friends and I needed him in my business deals," Agliotti testified. At times, his testimony verged on farce, such as when he described going on a shopping trip with Selebi to buy a pair of small, broad shoes that might fit the peculiarly shaped feet of Mbeki, who had appointed Selebi...
...Also keeping his distance from the trial is Mbeki. Mbeki was ousted by Zuma as leader of the ANC nearly two years ago following a lengthy power struggle in which the rivals fought numerous battles in the courts. Zuma faced accusations of rape and corruption (he was acquitted of the first, and charges in the second case were dropped). Mbeki, meanwhile, was badly damaged by his association with Selebi - and his reluctance, even as Selebi's legal problems deepened, to censure him. (Read "Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred...
...powers with any influence over Mugabe's isolationist regime - South Africa and the 15-country Southern African Development Community (SADC) - tended to avoid public attacks. A year ago, albeit after a full decade of repression, that "quiet diplomacy," to use former South African President Thabo Mbeki's phrase, finally helped yield a power-sharing deal between Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the longtime opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). (See pictures of Robert Mugabe's reign...
...South Africa's stance has changed too. Mbeki's successor, Jacob Zuma, whose track record as a mediator includes facilitating peace between South Africa's Zulus and Xhosa in 1994 and between warring factions in Burundi in 2005, has a blunter style. As Zuma prepared to depart for Zimbabwe last month, his aide (and secretary-general of his party, the African National Congress) Gwede Mantashe said Zuma "will be more vocal in terms of what we see as deviant behavior," adding all sides in Zimbabwe must understand they did not have the "luxury of adolescent behavior. You must be more...