SA President Mbeki set to step down
South Africa's ruling party said yesterday that President Thabo Mbeki had agreed to resign after being asked to step down, a move that could heighten turmoil in Africa's economic powerhouse.
Mbeki was due to stand down next year after two terms in office, but faced growing pressure from supporters of ANC President Jacob Zuma to quit following a judge's ruling that he was instrumental in Zuma being charged with corruption.
African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said Saturday that the party's top-level National Executive Committee has "decided to recall the president of the republic before his term of office expires."
"(Mbeki) did not display shock ... He welcomed the news and agreed that he is going to participate in the process and the formalities," Mantashe said.
Mantashe said that Mbeki would remain in the top office until an interim president was appointed and would continue as mediator in Zimbabwe, where last week he persuaded President Robert Mugabe to cede some power to the opposition for the first time in 28 years.
Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela in 1999, has been heralded by the international business community. If other key cabinet ministers decide to quit in solidarity, there could be turmoil.
Mantashe said Zuma was meeting with Cabinet ministers to persuade them to remain in government.
Mbeki fired Zuma as his national deputy president in 2005, after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of trying to elicit a bribe to deflect investigations into a multibillion-dollar international arms deal.
The charges were withdrawn against Zuma, but the chief prosecutor announced in December he had enough evidence to bring new ones. This was within days of Zuma ousting Mbeki as ANC president.
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