Mbeki Under Fire
With the Zuma rape acquittal the supporters of Zuma have been going on the attack against Mbeki either threatening to leave the tripartite alliance or accusing him of becoming more and more dictator like. Now COSATU are in a way correct. Mbeki is an authoritarian, and he always has been. However COSATU had no complaints when Mbeki was making legislation that they agreed with.
I have also noticed that the Zuma supporters seem to have forgotten the upcoming Zuma corruption trial. To me this was always the primary concern with Zuma. The nature of his relationship with Schabir Shaik, the fact that Shaik paid an abnormal amount of his expenses, is highly disturbing. Similarily the ongoing investigation into Brett Kebble’s empire of financial fraud must be making the ANCYL extremely nervous.
That being said in the meantime Mbeki needs to try and get some focus off Zuma. There’s a rumour that he will use the ANC NEC to do this, exactly how I don’t know. The idea that he will ‘augment his power’ is a bit wierd considering Mbeki wields plenty of power already. In terms of succession he seems to have already backtracked on this ‘woman president’ quote, now claiming that SA is ready for a female president should one be elected. Hopefully Mbeki will put his weight behind someone. It should be noted that before Mbeki came into power Mandela considered Cyril Ramaphosa to be his heir apparent but was convinced to put his endorsement on Mbeki. It might help Mbeki to do that as well.
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