Mbeki's Turn as Prez

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November 2008
- Mbeki AIDS Denial Killed 365K in South Africa
  
  New York Times | Nov 26, 08 6:54 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - South Africa's failure to provide antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients has cost 365,000 lives, a new Harvard study finds. The report places the blame for the deaths with ousted president Thabo Mbeki, whose denial of AIDS' viral cause led Africa's richest country to ignore its sick citizens while other southern African nations provided medicine, the New York Times reports. More »
October 2008
- Schism Brewing in South Africa's Ruling Party
  
  Guardian (UK) | Oct 8, 08 10:55 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Thabo Mbeki’s top officials are planning to break away from the party that deposed him, the Guardian reports. Mosiuoa Lekota, who spent nearly a decade as Mbeki’s defense minister, today announced a conference that he sees as a step on the path to “divorce” from the African National Congress. “This is probably the parting of the ways,” Lekota said, accusing ANC leadership of “eliminating our internal democracy.” More »
September 2008
- South Africa in Crisis as Cabinet Walks Out With Mbeki
  
  Associated Press | Sep 23, 08 8:00 AM CDT
  
  (AP) - Most of South Africa's cabinet, including the powerful and respected finance minister, resigned today following the ouster of President Thabo Mbeki over the weekend. The walkout could be a devastating blow to the economic stability of Africa's most powerful nation, and to the new administration expected to take over on Thursday, reports the AP. The 10 departing ministers also include those responsible for mediating the Zimbabwe crisis and planning the 2010 World Cup. More »
- Zuma Loyalist Will Become South African President
  
  Reuters | Sep 22, 08 8:34 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The African National Congress has chosen Kgalema Motlanthe, a moderate intellectual and the ruling party's No. 2, to be South Africa's caretaker president, Reuters reports. He will fill the job vacated by Thabo Mbeki, who resigned this weekend after the party demanded he step down. Motlanthe is a loyalist of Jacob Zuma, the head of the ANC, and could be confirmed as president as soon as today. More »
- Mbeki Leaves Mixed Legacy
  
  Guardian (UK) | Sep 20, 08 4:55 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Thabo Mbeki could never be as beloved as Nelson Mandela, so he didn’t try, writes Mark Tran in the Guardian. Instead, Mbeki projected himself as a competent technocrat: cool, aloof, almost disdainful of popular opinion. He leaves behind a legacy as inscrutable as that persona, with clear victories, like the power-sharing deal he engineered in Zimbabwe, and bizarre failures, like his stance on HIV. More »
- Mbeki Will Resign in S. Africa
  
  Associated Press | Sep 20, 08 9:03 AM CDT
  
  (AP) - South African President Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resign following orders from the ruling party. A statement from the presidency says that Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela in 1999, will "step down after all constitutional requirements have been met." Parliament is due to meet in the coming days to formalize the resignation procedure and is likely to appoint the parliamentary speaker as acting head of state. More »
- South Africa's President May Be Ousted in Party Revolt
  
  Guardian (UK) | Sep 19, 08 7:47 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The leaders of the African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, are meeting today to debate whether to force Thabo Mbeki to resign. The country's president has been under fire since a court ruled that the prosecution of Jacob Zuma, Mbeki's archrival and the head of the ANC, was politically motivated. While powerful factions in the ANC want to force Mbeki out, Zuma is said to be cautious, reports the Guardian . More »
- Zimbabwe Leaders Sign Landmark Deal
  
  Reuters | Sep 15, 08 6:57 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Zimbabwe's rival political parties signed their landmark power-sharing deal today, in which Robert Mugabe will remain president while Morgan Tsvangirai will take on the new position of prime minister. The two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change will receive a majority of cabinet posts, including the ministries responsible for the economy and the police. But Mugabe will still have control of the army, reports Reuters. More »
- S. African Court Throws Out Zuma Graft Case
  
  Mail & Guardian (South Africa) | Sep 12, 08 8:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A South African court has thrown out a corruption case against Jacob Zuma, effectively clearing the way for him to become president next year. The judge ruled that the charges—including 12 counts of fraud, four of corruption, and one each of racketeering and money laundering—were invalid because he was not given the opportunity to respond before his indictment. He also said that Zuma seemed to be the victim of a political prosecution, reports the Mail & Guardian . More »
- Zimbabwe Rivals Strike Deal
  
  Independent (UK) | Sep 11, 08 10:35 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Zimbabwe's rival factions have reached a power-sharing agreement to end Robert Mugabe's 28-year monopoly on power, the Independent reports. Details, however, won't be spelled out until Monday, leading some Western analysts to reserve celebration. In broad strokes, however, Mugabe will share power with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who will be prime minister. Tsvangirai confirmed the deal, but Mugabe hasn't addressed it. More »
August 2008
- Freed Tsvangirai Arrives in South Africa
  
  Associated Press | Aug 15, 08 5:37 AM CDT
  
  (AP) - Morgan Tsvangirai has arrived in South Africa today on the eve of a weekend summit with regional leaders expected to focus on Zimbabwe's political crisis, reports the AP. The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change will meet with Thabo Mbeki, the South African president who is mediating power-sharing talks between Robert Mugabe and the opposition. Tsvangirai was given his passport back and allowed to leave the country a day after he was blocked at the airport in his first attempt. More »
- Tsvangirai Barred From Mbeki Meet
  
  Times (UK) | Aug 14, 08 8:37 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's opposition, was detained at the airport in Harare today and prevented from flying to South Africa. Authorities confiscated his passport, as well as the travel documents of fellow members of the Movement for Democratic Change, before letting him leave. Tsvangirai was to attend a meeting with South African president Thabo Mbeki in an attempt to resolve the country's political crisis. More »
- Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Talks Stall; Mbeki Leaves
  
  Bloomberg | Aug 13, 08 10:42 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - South African president Thabo Mbeki today left Zimbabwe without a power-sharing deal, as official media reported that Robert Mugabe had struck an agreement with a breakaway leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, sidelining its leader Morgan Tsvangirai. A spokesman for the MDC splinter group told Bloomberg there was no deal. More »
July 2008
- Zimbabwe Rivals Agree to Start Negotiations
  
  BBC | Jul 21, 08 12:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Robert Mugabe has signed a deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai establishing negotiations on the future of Zimbabwe, the BBC reports. The rivals met for the first time in 10 years to sign the agreement, which South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki witnessed. The deal does not create the power-sharing structure Mbeki proposed; it creates a framework for further negotiations. More »
- South Africa Offers Zimbabwe Truce Proposal
  
  Guardian (UK) | Jul 7, 08 10:33 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - South African president Thabo Mbeki has proposed a compromise in Zimbabwe’s political crisis: Let Robert Mugabe remain president in name, but hand power to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as temporary prime minister, the Guardian reports. Members of opposition party Movement for Democratic Change were said to be largely satisfied with the plan, on the condition that the African Union would help enforce it. More »
- Stubborn Mbeki Denies the Blood on Hands
  
  New York Times | Jul 3, 08 6:45 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Five years ago Roger Cohen interviewed Thabo Mbeki in the New York Times , and even then the South African president insisted that Zimbabwe will "get over" its conflicts. So as supposed mediator in Zimbabwe's deepening economic and humanitarian disaster, why has Mbeki still done nothing? An earlier act of stubbornness might provide a clue: his AIDS denialism, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives in his own country. More »
- Tsvangirai Rejects Mbeki as Mediator
  
  Associated Press | Jul 2, 08 11:58 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Zimbabwe’s opposition party won’t accept South African President Thabo Mbeki as a mediator in negotiations with the government, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today. Arguing that Mbeki is too close to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai said without another mediator “no meaningful progress can be made.” The African Union supported Mbeki as mediator yesterday, the AP notes. More »
June 2008
- Mugabe Faces Chilly Reception at African Summit
  
  Reuters | Jun 30, 08 5:17 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Newly reinaugurated Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrived today at an African Union summit where he is expected to face pressure to negotiate with the country's opposition. Although Mugabe walked into the conference at an Egyptian resort alongside other leaders, he has faced unprecedented criticism from African governments to yield to international demands, Reuters reports. More »
- Mandela Blasts Mugabe's 'Tragic Failure of Leadership'
  
  BBC | Jun 25, 08 10:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Nelson Mandela broke his silence today and denounced the "tragic failure of leadership" of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The influential former South African leader had previously held back so he wouldn't undermine the authority of mediator Thabo Mbeki, the BBC reports. "The world remains beset by so much human suffering," he said. "It is now in the hands of your generations to help rid the world of such suffering." More »
- Soccer Is Key to Get S. Africa to Play Ball on Zimbabwe
  
  New York Times | Jun 24, 08 8:37 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The last few weeks have further exposed Robert Mugabe as a tyrant—and Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, as a "vacillating, dithering, morally compromised figure," writes Peter Godwin. In an op-ed for the New York Times , the Zimbabwe-born author says that the West must force Mbeki to act by playing its trump card: threaten to take away the World Cup, which South Africa hosts in just two years. More »