S. African Ruling Party Weighs Mbeki's Fate

JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 19 -- South Africa's ruling party began a three-day meeting Friday to discuss whether to force out President Thabo Mbeki, who has faced mounting calls to resign since a court ruling suggested he had pressured prosecutors to charge his political rival with corruption.

Mbeki, South Africa's second president since the end of apartheid, is set to step down next year after 10 years in office. But his influence has waned dramatically since he lost the leadership of the ruling African National Congress in December to Jacob Zuma, who is now on track to become South Africa's next president.

Last week, a judge dismissed corruption charges against Zuma, saying that prosecutors had not followed procedures and that the charges appeared to be part of a politically motivated scheme involving Mbeki. Mbeki has denied the allegation.

Zuma, who faced 16 counts of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering stemming from a multimillion-dollar arms deal, was charged days after winning the ANC presidency. The dismissal of the charges prompted the head of the ANC Youth League and other Zuma supporters to call for Mbeki's ouster. Prosecutors have said they will appeal the ruling.

If the party's top decision-making committee opts to eject Mbeki but he refuses to resign, the ANC could use its parliamentary majority to deem him unfit to serve. The party would then choose a lawmaker to take his place until elections next year -- but not Zuma, who is not a member of Parliament. Alternatively, the ANC could issue a vote of no confidence in the government, forcing early elections that some political analysts say the party is not ready for.

The party's deliberations prompted outrage from Mbeki, who decried what he called a "growing tendency to hurl insults at organs of state" and denied that he had influenced the charges against Zuma, his former deputy president and ally. Mbeki fired Zuma in 2005 after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of soliciting bribes in relation to the arms deal.

"It impoverishes our society that some resort to the tactic of advancing allegations with no fact to support these," the president's office said in a statement. "Arising from this, the question will have to be answered now -- what kind of society are we building, informed by what value system and with what long-term effect to political and overall moral health of the nation?"

Zuma, for his part, has not joined calls for Mbeki's resignation. At a rally last weekend, he said there was no need to "beat a dead snake."