Mbeki joins row over Zuma’s fate

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Mbeki joins row over Zuma’s fate

7:50 CAT | 12 Apr 2017

AFP (File photo) / Mr Mbeki stepped down in 2008 under pressure from Mr Zuma

South Africa’s ex-President Thabo Mbeki has called on MPs of the governing African National Congress (ANC) to act in the interest of voters – rather than their party – during next week’s opposition-sponsored motion to oust the scandal-hit President Jacob Zuma, the local IOL news site reports .

Mr Mbeki’s call is bound to incur the wrath of Mr Zuma’s supporters, who have vowed to defeat the motion during a parliamentary vote, the site says.

Opposition parties accuse Mr Zuma of being corrupt, and say he sacked the respected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in order to get greater control over the Treasury.

Mr Zuma denies being corrupt, and says the cabinet reshuffle was aimed at promoting “radical economic transformation” for the benefit of the black majority.

Mr Mbeki said, in an article for the site, that MPs should be the voice of the people and “not the voice of the political parties to which they belong”, IOL reports.

He added that the current controversy may have given South Africa an opportunity to better define the “constitutional and moral relationship between the people and their elected representatives.”

Mr Mbeki is a member of the ANC who resigned as president after losing the confidence of the party, led by Mr Zuma, in 2008.

Source: BBC