Thabo ‘open’ to 2 leaders

LONDON – Thabo Mbeki has opened the door for the first time to a ‘double presidency option’ in South Africa, where the position of ANC president and that of president of the country would be filled by two different people.

In a wide-ranging interview published in the London Financial Times (FT) on Tuesday, of which a transcript can be found on the FT’s website, Mbeki said he saw ‘no problem’ with such a system. “We’ve had it before, when I was elected ANC president in 1997 while Nelson Mandela remained the president of the republic until 1999.”The FT notes that while Mbeki was careful not to express himself openly in favour of the idea, he went a long way towards defending the feasibility of such a system.He said the independent relationship between the ANC and the government made a double presidency very workable.He referred to the ANC executive’s three-day meeting next January, where they will be discussing what the government should do in the year ahead.About a week later the cabinet will hold a similar three-day meeting where those suggestions will be discussed.Mbeki did not reply to a direct question about whether he would run for the party leadership at the end of the year.He avoided the issue by pointing out how important the conference would be for reviewing the ANC’s ‘total policy framework’, as this would be the last opportunity to do so before the ANC’s centenary celebrations in 2012.He said he was aware that “some people” (never mentioning them by name) are engaged in an election campaign, but maintained that ordinary people were not worried about who the next party leader would be.Mbeki defended the position recently adopted by South Africa on Iran in the UN Security Council, saying the situation in Iran could not be viewed in isolation.He said there were definitely questions about Iran’s nuclear programme to which that country has not yet provided answers and that South Africa always is always pushing them to answer those outstanding questions and urging them to co-operate fully with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).But Mbeki said South Africa believes it is important not to aggravate matters in an already troubled part of the world by the way the Iranian situation is handled.He said the problems of nuclear power and nuclear energy in Iran could not be isolated from everything else happening in the region.”You can’t have a big fight [about the nuclear question] and not expect it also to have a big influence on the rest of the region’s problems.Beeld”We’ve had it before, when I was elected ANC president in 1997 while Nelson Mandela remained the president of the republic until 1999.”The FT notes that while Mbeki was careful not to express himself openly in favour of the idea, he went a long way towards defending the feasibility of such a system.He said the independent relationship between the ANC and the government made a double presidency very workable.He referred to the ANC executive’s three-day meeting next January, where they will be discussing what the government should do in the year ahead.About a week later the cabinet will hold a similar three-day meeting where those suggestions will be discussed.Mbeki did not reply to a direct question about whether he would run for the party leadership at the end of the year.He avoided the issue by pointing out how important the conference would be for reviewing the ANC’s ‘total policy framework’, as this would be the last opportunity to do so before the ANC’s centenary celebrations in 2012.He said he was aware that “some people” (never mentioning them by name) are engaged in an election campaign, but maintained that ordinary people were not worried about who the next party leader would be.Mbeki defended the position recently adopted by South Africa on Iran in the UN Security Council, saying the situation in Iran could not be viewed in isolation.He said there were definitely questions about Iran’s nuclear programme to which that country has not yet provided answers and that South Africa always is always pushing them to answer those outstanding questions and urging them to co-operate fully with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).But Mbeki said South Africa believes it is important not to aggravate matters in an already troubled part of the world by the way the Iranian situation is handled.He said the problems of nuclear power and nuclear energy in Iran could not be isolated from everything else happening in the region.”You can’t have a big fight [about the nuclear question] and not expect it also to have a big influence on the rest of the region’s problems.Beeld