South African scandal engulfs Mbeki

The questions now dogging the South African president are the same ones that haunted Richard Nixon until his downfall -- what did the president know and when did he know it? And as with the disgraced former US president, it may be a cover-up that proves his undoing. Thabo Mbeki has denied that he sacked the director of public prosecutions (DPP), Vusi Pikoli, to stop him arresting the country's police chief and head of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, for links to organized crime and protecting a crime boss implicated in murder. The president said Pikoli was dismissed for his poor relationship with the justice minister. But as revelations about the sequence of events emerge, Mbeki's denials have been met with growing incredulity. In recent days it has been revealed that the president told Pikoli not to indict Selebi. The DPP went ahead anyway and obtained warrants against the police chief for corruption, racketeering and defeating the ends of justice four weeks ago. The president sacked Pikoli a fortnight later. The new DPP then secretly quashed the arrest warrants while the government refused to acknowledge that they even existed. As the crisis has grown, Mbeki has been confronted with accusations not only of obstructing justice but also of a cover-up. The front page headline of South Africa's best selling newspaper, the Sunday Times, summed up the public's doubts: "Tell us the truth, Mr. President." When Mbeki was asked about the warrants by a local television reporter, he sidestepped the question even though he knew that failing to answer would reinforce the growing perception that he is not telling the truth. The journalist was escorted from the room by the president's bodyguards and bullied into apologizing for even asking. Amid mounting public disquiet, Mbeki announced an inquiry but only into whether Pikoli is fit for office. It will be led by the ANC's former speaker of parliament and held behind closed doors. The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), says it is astonished that the president would suspend the DPP while leaving in place a police chief facing serious criminal charges - including taking substantial bribes from a friend and alleged organized crime boss Glenn Agliotti, and interfering to try and protect Agliotti who is accused of murdering a corrupt mining magnate. The inquiry into Pikoli has, among other things, been asked to investigate whether he endangered national security by giving an amnesty to known crime syndicate leaders in order to build a case against Selebi. Mbeki was also reported irked at Pikoli's failure to appreciate the damage that could be done to South Africa's reputation abroad by arresting the head of Interpol. Mbeki's critics say it is a greater danger to national security to allow Selebi to remain in his post, and more damaging to the country's image to protect a police chief accused of serious crimes than to arrest him. The DA leader, Helen Zille, asked for parliament to be recalled and described the issue as a constitutional crisis. "It is quite clear that he [Mbeki] has intervened to stop the Selebi warrant and that in itself constitutes a crisis," she said. "The most serious questions, with profound constitutional implications, are being asked about the conduct of the president and the national police commissioner. The president needs to take the nation into his confidence." All of this might be seen as the machinations of a fading presidency -- its power waning with a general election less than two years away, and because Mbeki's credibility has been increasingly eroded by his handling of issues such as AIDS -- if it were not for its potential impact on his successor. Pikoli's dismissal has buttressed claims by Mbeki's political opponents in the ruling African National Congress that he has misused his powers in a witch-hunt against his enemies, particularly the increasingly powerful former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, as he campaigns to win the ANC leadership at its convention in December. If Zuma becomes the ANC leader he is almost certain to be the country's next president after the 2009 general election. But he too is dogged by allegations of corruption and is facing indictment by the same special police unit, the Scorpions, that pursued Selebi. The Scorpions are investigating Zuma after his former financial advisor was convicted two years ago of fraud for bribing him over a multi-billion dollar arms deal by South Africa. Mbeki sacked Zuma as deputy president, a move that divided the ANC, but criminal charges were thrown out of court last year before a full trial. The Scorpions appear ready to press new charges that could derail Zuma's bid for the presidency. Pikoli's office was already viewed as a loose cannon by many in the ANC for pursuing high level politicians including the party's former chief whip, Tony Yengeni, who was sent to prison for accepting a bribe from Mercedes Benz in the weapons deal. He served just five months of a four-year sentence. But Sipho Seepe, a respected political scientist, says that Mbeki's moves to protect his police chief while the Scorpions continue to pursue Zuma has left the impression that the president is abusing the law to pursue a political agenda. "There is a feeling he used those powers to settle political scores. That goes back to issues like HIV/Aids and Zimbabwe where there is a feeling he has acted in his own interests not those of the country. He has lost the trust of the people," he said.