If the ANC decides not to have an early election, a President must be chosen within 30 days from among the members of the National Assembly. As Jacob Zuma is not a member of the National Assembly and cannot become one before the election because he is not at the top of one of their election lists, the question is who will take over as caretaker President until the next election.
Some newspaper reports have suggested the Speaker Baleka Mbete will take over. But she will first have to resign as Speaker before she could be elected President for the period until the next election by June 2009. Some suggests that Kgalema Motlanthe is not trusted by the Zuma camp but he should be the obvious choice for caretaker President until the 2009 election.
I am surprised the ANC has not said anything about this at the news conference. They have been very vague, merely muttering about “Parliamentary process”. If they want stability they need to tell us as soon as possible what the next move is. Or have they not yet decided on a next move? If they have not, they are even more irresponsible than I thought.
UPDATE: Two thoughts just came to me. Maybe the Presidency is referring to the requirement that the cabinet must designate an acting President from among its members and will only resign once the cabinet has designated one of its members to act as President? Also, maybe the President wants to resign in a speech to the National Assembly. Now that will be an interesting speech to watch!
Pierre, I was reading your post of 17th September and there were too many comments for me to read through all of them. But one thing interested me, viz. the update you posted where you mentioned that Parliament’s ethics committee would have had to have investigated Zuma’s gift from Shaik if he had been an MP in April 2008.
My question is, though, as Zuma was an MP when he received the gift, doesn’t the ethics committee still need to investigate this gift?
And secondly, if Mbeki has been recalled because he has been implicated in unconstitutional practices, then where does that place Jacob Zuma in terms of running for SA president in 2009 as he has also been implicated in unconstitutional practices?
[...] are some things that are not clear to me, though, and I hope that someone more informed than myself will be able to help me out: if Thabo Mbeki is being recalled as President of South [...]
If only the ANC could choose somebody we all have respect for. Somebody like Kgalema.
“… somebody we all have respect for. Somebody like Kgalema.”
Who’s “we all”? Please speak for yourself, Wessel. Politicians have to first earn my respect. After all, I’m one of their employers.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”…Butler(1921)
Phumzile has to take over,the Zuma camp cannot be selfish and rape the constitution for their own gains.
By Setumo Stone
http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/20616#reacties
Watching the Democratic Alliance leader after the ANC NEC’s announcement of the decision to recall President Thabo Mbeki, she looked very much defeated.
Known to many as an opportunist who always dares to seize the occasion, Helen Zille chose not to be her usual purring and scratching self, while the carcass of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency was still fresh.
It dawned to me that the decisive action by the NEC, might have just put an end to the legend of a Zuma and an Mbeki faction within the ANC. Without Thabo Mbeki at the helm of the country, it would be very difficult for Zille and fellow opposition backers to keep projecting views of a power struggle within the ANC.
Truth be told, the decision indeed reaffirmed that there is only one ANC, and that is the leadership that was elected in Polokwane 2007. Secondly, it sent a very strong and correct message that loyalty within the ANC is only to the movement and not individuals.
Coming closer to home, it might also have occurred to Zille that the Western Cape would no longer be marred by factional politics, stabbings and all other misdemeanors that gave her party a fertile ground to attack the leadership of the ANC.
But all these revelations still fell short of unraveling Helen Zille’s “unusual” response. It still seemed more like the recalling of Thabo Mbeki was more personal to Zille than it should have been.
After all, Zille was probably the only opposition leader to visit the president’s premises and have a chat. This happened not only once, but twice. On both occasions, Zille came out all smiles, informing a few journalist who where around that the meetings were indeed fruitful and encouraging.
Some people suggested that Zille was always enthusiastic about meeting Mbeki because she just couldn’t resist the tea offered at Tuinhuis. I don’t know what is it about this particular tea at Tuinhuis, but I’m sure if the suggestions are true, it really got Zille to glow and shine in an unusual manner.
It is of course unthinkable that Zille could be the host at Tuinhuis anytime soon, so the only option she has – if indeed she finds the tea at Tuinhuis irresistible – is to reconcile with Jacob Zuma as soon as possible.
Setumo Stone
What a long and boring rhetoric about Me Zille and tea at Tuinhuis!?! Let’s keep to the subject matter at hand and the discord in the ANC.
Pierre I have to agree, they are in serious need of a Constitutional consultant. The ignorant remark of “the constitution is silent about this matter” … ag shame!!
My question to you after your interview on SABC2 this afternoon just before Me Zille is : how fast can the constitution be change to accommodate Showerhead Zuma as prez? (Oops sorry lack of respect …)
The ANC just sucks terribly at the moment. I can only muster a bit of respect for Kgalema and Mantash, the rest are pretty much opportunists, thugs and crooks. After all, 1/3 of the NEC are known crooks, as is the incoming pres.
If only the ANC could split now….
I shudder to think what this change is going to do to service delivery. A whole new raft of buddies and family is going to be “deployed” dribbling and jostling at the trough, and they will all take a year or two to settle into their nests. Its not as if service delivery was flying along as it is.
These changes would be fine if only the politicians were to change, but in SA it seems that the entire civil service is also deployed en-mass by the ruling faction.
At least Zuma is a decernable human who has a track record of inclusivness. This will be a big step up from the cold fish chip on shoulder “rich whites/poor blacks two world’s” Mbeki, but at least Mbeki didn’t carry the stench of personal enrichment that the new crowd does.
I wait to be pleasantly surprised by the new leadership, but am not holding my breath….
Seems like Baleka Mbete will start off – super, we have a new pres with the moral credentials of someone who bought her drivers licence fruadulently, and also stole some taxpayers money as part of travelgate. This ANC has no clothes and certainly no shame.
My vote is for Verbal-diahree-I-live-with-my-foot-in-my-mouth Malema
Can the centre hold?…..Ummmm interesting
1. Clever Thabo. First he resigns, places them into a legal quandry since he and the cabinet still holds the cards according to Prof’s interpretation the constitution
2. With Thabo gone, the infighting will start….. in due course
3. And in the process the “beneficiaries” (poor) will lose again.
The lunatics – as they say – have taken over the asylum.
In my legally and politically limited opinion, after reading Pierres explanation of the process to be followed, my simplistic conclusion is:
The NEC and ANCY want JZ as president ASAP. That is the primary motive.
How can that be accomplished in the shortest possible space of time?
The ANC NEC will not name a new president, knowing that Mbeki’s loyal cabinet will also resign, leaving the post of president open for 30 days. Thus requiring an election in 90 days.
Is that possible?
Who has been printing all the expensive colourful JZ support posters and banners for the JZ loyalists and paid for their being bussed in from all over to display the banners. I would hesitate to guess that the printer who made the banners may be working on election banners.
This is purely speculative on my part. As an ordinary person, i am confused about a number of issues that simply slip off the newstand, those are:
1. JZ has been accused of fraud, surely his name should be cleared ahead of any presidency. These charges are unanswered until the public and the legal system officially clears them.
2. Has TM done anything wrong?
From my house TM is simply the latest victim of whistleblowing. SA has to be the one country where openly pointing a finger at a crime can be your downfall. If the president of the US asked for his second in charge to be removed from office and investigated for fraud and encouraged the legal system to charge for the offense, would any sensible person worried about gravy train politicians argue that decision to be wrong.
3.The threatening NON DEMOCRATIC statements made by the ANCYL smack of a very undemocratic agenda.
i am stressed. No one in government is looking at the looming global economic crisis if they are all working on this, which could have waited to happen once all the facts where given.
And the bitter and despondent will never stop moaning…
Just asking – “The lunatics – as they say – have taken over the asylum.”
Yes, as Pink Floyd says, “I’ll see you on tthe dark side of the moon!?”
Politically-Challenged: while the ANC is not in a position to amend its national list again to allow Jacob Zuma to become an MP and be eligible for election, it could conceivably amend one of its provincial-to-national lists to allow him back. This would allow Zuma, who resigned as an MP on 14 June 2005 – when he was fired by Mbeki – to return to the National Assembly and be appointed president. But Zuma is said not to want to become president in this way, so Baleka Mbete is likely to be elected.
Setumo Stone: wouldn’t you say that cracks are already appearing in the Zuma camp – between the ‘militants’ (Julius et al) and the ‘moderates’ (Kgalema Motlanthe, Mathews Phosa)? Maybe Helen Zille has no cause for despair just yet …
Hahaha, Anonymouse … what can you do when you live in a zoo? Ag nee man, forget Pink Floyd and listen to some Ludwig Van: you need something uplifting, fo’ sho’.
I kind of like Pink Floyd’s ‘galge-humor’ that are applicable to these situations. I like like Ludwig van Beethoven and even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well, but in situations like these, Pink Floyd is priceless: “Maggie, what have you done?” etc.
Just finished watching the speech. WHAT A STATESMAN. Clear, coherent and magnanimous in a the belly of resentfulness. And people say he has no leadership skills.
To him – Thank you, Siyabonga.
Khosi – why use only two of the official languages in thanking him?
it is because i am not a copycat.
hail hail at least there will be equality because commorade Mbeki di not handle things very well politically why he did not prosecute selebi but fired zuma i think what the ANC did it was the best decision they ever made in the entire history of ANC kgalema motlante must be the new president