Every story must have an end whether good or bad. Thabo Mbeki to some can be viewed as one of the greatest leaders to come from Africa and others as a typical Western ass kisser. Either way you look at it, Thabo Mbeki will be resigning from office by the end of this week.
http://www.capetimes.co.za/?fSectionId=3531&fArticleId=nw20080922142024457C831920
As stated by the CDA, he "tried to win the world for ANC and lost the ANC to himself...A Head of State's first responsibility is towards his own people and country....Mbeki neglected his party and duplicated the role of the minister of foreign affairs".
The sad part of this whole shenanigan is that he let his personal vendetta against Zuma get the best of him. For a president that should put country first, it seemed that he preferred other countries than his.
The question is how did a man like Mbeki that was born into the struggle go from grace to grace?
Brief history: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3499695.stm
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki was born in 1942 in Idutywa in the Eastern Cape.
His father was a leading communist Govan Mbeki - a teacher, writer and newspaper publisher - and Epainette, also a teacher who ran a shop to feed the four children.
Mbeki grew up in rural Eastern Cape and his readings as a youngster revolved around the plight of the poor. After several schools and skirmishes with authorities in the Eastern Cape, he was sent to Johannesburg where he came under the guidance of Walter Sisulu, Mr Mandela's best friend and mentor. When his father was arrested with Mr Mandela, he went to Sussex University in the UK, where he took a Masters degree and left to work in the ANC's London office.
Then followed spells in the Soviet Union for military training; Zambia, Botswana, Swaziland and Nigeria. From 1978 onwards he rose in the ANC under the direct tutelage of Oliver Tambo, the organization's president. He was the organization's chief spokesman, its head of international affairs and in the late 1980s was one of the five key ANC leaders who negotiated a settlement with the apartheid government. The years of exile left numerous scars on Mr Mbeki and his family. He lost a brother, Jama, who disappeared in exile.
In the late 1980s, with the end of apartheid in sight, Mr Mbeki played a key role in discussions between the exiled ANC and white political and business leaders in South Africa.
This bridge-building role continued after he returned to South Africa, and he can take much of the credit for reassuring South African and international business interests, and foreign governments, that a post-apartheid South Africa would be a safe place for their money.
Mr Mbeki has managed to swing important international leaders behind his Africa rejuvenation plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).
Perhaps his biggest policy success has been South Africa's rapid economic growth since the end of apartheid and the rise of a black middle class - but to the anger of many, wealth is more unevenly distributed than ever before.
He has failed to convince the trade unions and the poorest South Africans that the government has acted in their interest since the end of apartheid.
And it was this that provided the space for Mr Zuma to mobilise a powerful constituency and end Mr Mbeki's leadership of the party - in which he has spent so much of his life - and his presidency.
THE MIGHTY FALL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7627882.stm
Certainly it is unprecedented in South African history that a head of state is dismissed in this way. Nor is the ANC the kind of organisation that goes in for this humiliation of its leaders.
So why did it happen?
The immediate cause was Mr Mbeki's ongoing feud with his former deputy, the ANC party leader Jacob Zuma.
But this was not just a personal vendetta between two men. Behind these events lie two major factors: one political, one personal.
All politicians make enemies. That is the nature of the game. But President Mbeki has made more than most. One example should suffice to illustrate the problem.
In April 2001 the country's national daily, the Star, had a headline that read "Mbeki plot rocks ANC".
President Mbeki had sent his minister of safety and security to accuse three leading members of the party of plotting to oust him.
The accused - former ANC secretary-general, Cyril Ramaphosa and two former provincial premiers, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa ¬- were among the party's most respected figures.
All three were men who had driven to seek their fortunes in business after being marginalised by Mr Mbeki.
To this day there is no clear explanation of why these extraordinary charges were made. Nelson Mandela himself emerged from retirement to say that he held all three in "high esteem".
The Mail and Guardian newspaper commented at the time that it was a strategy worth of Joseph Stalin and said: "Many observers have dismissed the plot theories as a strategy to warn off potential competitors with ambitions to challenge Mbeki's leadership."
No evidence was ever led against them, no charges were laid and the matter was swept under the carpet. However, it was certainly not forgotten.
Today Mathew Phosa is the ANC Treasurer General, one of the top party posts. Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale are members of the National Executive.
Their names, along with those of Zwelinzima Vavi, leader of the trade unions in Cosatu and Blade Nzimande of the Communist Party, have been cited in the South African press as among those who wielded the knife against Thabo Mbeki.
The political and the personal had come together.
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