By OSAZUA IVBAZE

All the sophisticated explanations have been given for the conflict between ANC president Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki, and they all revolve around corruption, the arms deal and ideological contestation between the party’s left and right. But down on the street, it’s a different matter.

Speak to a man who makes his living drifting about the suburbs as a painter and handyman, and you get this explanation: “The Zulus have chucked out the Xhosas and they are going to stop others from getting jobs. Malema is being used and when they are finished with him, they will chuck him out”.

But, the scars of Xenophobia are fresh, there are signs that ordinary people are retreating to ethnicity to explain the conflict.

This is not just a survey of one. The comments that flow into blog and into the web site, frequently reach for ethnic explanations. The Xenophobic attacks themselves take on an ethnic bent at times.
The source of this mindset lies in apartheid past, where ethnic groups were actively set against one another in a “divide and rule strategy”.

It is critical that the post-Mbeki government work actively to lay this perception to rest.
South African parliament rubberstamps Mbeki resignation

South African lawmakers approved President Thabo Mbeki’s resignation Tuesday, last week as he attempted to mend his bruised reputation from charges that he interfered in the prosecution of rival Jacob Zuma.

The ANC-dominated parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of effecting Mbeki’s resignation with only 10 votes against the motion.

African National Congress deputy chief Kgalema Motlanthe was named as the party’s candidate to take over as head of state, and was sworn in as President.

Mbeki, who announced his resignation after pressure from the ANC, attempted to salvage his reputation in the Constitutional Court, as he challenged a court ruling which he said cost him his job as president.

In a September 12 ruling, Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed a corruption case against Mbeki’s political rival Jacob Zuma, hinting that Mbeki had interfered in the decision to prosecute his foe.

Mbeki, 66, who succeeded Nelson Mandele as president in June 1999, becames the country’s first democratically elected president to be forced out of office before the end of his term.

“It is unfair and unjust for me to be judged and condemned on the basis of the findings in the Zuma case”, said Mbeki in his application.

“The interests of justice, in my respectful submission would demand that the mater be rectified”, he added.

“These adverse findings have led to my being recalled by my political party, the ANC – a request I have acceded to as a committed and loyal member of the ANC for the past 52 years”, Mbeki said.

“I fear that if not rectified, I might suffer further prejudice”, he added. The court ruling that was to prove Mbeki’s final downfall found that the executive might have interfered in the decision to prosecute the ANC chief.

“I am not convinced that the applicant (Zuma) was incorrect in averring political meddling in his prosecution”, said Nicholson.

He was ruling on an application by the state to strike out sections of an affidavit filed by Zuma’s legal team that insinuated political interference in the decision to charge him.

Mbeki had been increasingly at loggerheads with his party, which split into two camps behind him and Zuma, after deciding to run for a third term as party president at a crunch

ANC conference in December last year toppled him as It was a week of heavy political debate, and a lengthy meeting by the ANC executive who decided on to “recall” Mbeki in the interests of party unity.
When announcing his resignation in a live address, Mbeki denied he had” compromised the right of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to decide whom it should prosecute and not prosecute”.

Following Mbeki’s resignation, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, and Science Minister Mosibudi Mangena have also tendered their resignations.

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