3rd term call for Mbeki, Cosatu backs Zuma

JOHANNESBURG – The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) will tomorrow table a motion calling on the ANC and its alliance partners to campaign for a constitutional amendment that would allow President Thabo Mbeki to stand as head of state for a third term.

The motion will be made at an alliance secretariat meeting where the ANC, SACP and Cosatu will be present. Sanco is the fourth component of the alliance partnership and its leader, Mlungisi Hlongwane, is a staunch Mbeki supporter.While there is no limit to the terms of presidency for the ANC, the country’s Constitution makes it clear that “no person may hold office as president for more than two terms”.Mbeki is in his second term which ends in 2009.Cosatu’s first deputy president Joe Nkosi told an ANC election rally in North West that the party’s deputy president Jacob Zuma will not go to jail for his alleged rape or corruption cases, SABC reported yesterday.Hundreds of Cosatu members again pledged their support for Zuma, whose rape trial starts on February 13 and the corruption trial on July 31.Nkosi emphasised that Zuma will be the next ANC president.”Those who are dreaming that JZ (Jacob Zuma) will go to a case of rape on 13th of February, will go to a case in July and think that in all those cases they will find JZ guilty, those people are dreaming,” said Nkosi.”Whether comrades, they like it or they don’t like it, …Msholozi 2007..is going to lead this movement.”Sanco says the constitutional clause prohibiting a third term for Mbeki robs the country of the best brains and should be scrapped.Hlongwane confirmed to City Press newspaper that Sanco would submit a discussion document for the amendment to the alliance secretariat.He said this had been decided by Sanco’s national executive committee (NEC) in December.”The maximum two terms that a president can serve is denying the country the opportunity to sustain developmental programmes that had been started.The constitutional clause in question is a foreign concept which worked well in Europe, and other countries that have enjoyed democracy for the past 200 years.”ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said the party had not seen Sanco’s proposal.”We have not, as the ANC, discussed this matter although there have been a number of people raising it.We will deal with it when Sanco proposes it and discuss it at the appropriate forum.We are living in a democratic country and people are free to raise any issue they like.”Presidential spokesperson Murphy Morobe said the president was not aware of Sanco’s proposal.- News24Sanco is the fourth component of the alliance partnership and its leader, Mlungisi Hlongwane, is a staunch Mbeki supporter.While there is no limit to the terms of presidency for the ANC, the country’s Constitution makes it clear that “no person may hold office as president for more than two terms”.Mbeki is in his second term which ends in 2009.Cosatu’s first deputy president Joe Nkosi told an ANC election rally in North West that the party’s deputy president Jacob Zuma will not go to jail for his alleged rape or corruption cases, SABC reported yesterday.Hundreds of Cosatu members again pledged their support for Zuma, whose rape trial starts on February 13 and the corruption trial on July 31.Nkosi emphasised that Zuma will be the next ANC president.”Those who are dreaming that JZ (Jacob Zuma) will go to a case of rape on 13th of February, will go to a case in July and think that in all those cases they will find JZ guilty, those people are dreaming,” said Nkosi.”Whether comrades, they like it or they don’t like it, …Msholozi 2007..is going to lead this movement.”Sanco says the constitutional clause prohibiting a third term for Mbeki robs the country of the best brains and should be scrapped.Hlongwane confirmed to City Press newspaper that Sanco would submit a discussion document for the amendment to the alliance secretariat.He said this had been decided by Sanco’s national executive committee (NEC) in December.”The maximum two terms that a president can serve is denying the country the opportunity to sustain developmental programmes that had been started.The constitutional clause in question is a foreign concept which worked well in Europe, and other countries that have enjoyed democracy for the past 200 years.”ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said the party had not seen Sanco’s proposal.”We have not, as the ANC, discussed this matter although there have been a number of people raising it.We will deal with it when Sanco proposes it and discuss it at the appropriate forum.We are living in a democratic country and people are free to raise any issue they like.”Presidential spokesperson Murphy Morobe said the president was not aware of Sanco’s proposal.- News24