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 fimbo writes:
By Dan Okoth
The recent acquittal of former South African President Jacob Zuma shows an emerging pattern of vice-presidents engulfed in the mire of political backstabbing and raw ambition.
African presidential deputies are not an enviable lot. In Kenya, former Vice-Presidents Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Josephat Karanja, George Saitoti and Musalia Mudavadi drank from the cup of sorrows, and it still overflows.
But the colourful mosaic of anguished vice-presidents and presidential challengers is evident in Africa’s other big names, including South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Sudan and Nigeria.
There is a link between VPs’ woes, extensions of presidential terms and the battle for survival by in*****bent presidents. Sometimes, it also involves former presidents extending their hands from political oblivion.
In other cases, a conspiracy of silence, "higher authorities" and "fate" has helped to keep the Number Twos in their place better than any wily president could imagine.
In Kenya, President Kibaki has not said a word about the accusations of corruption against Vice-President Moody Awori. The allegations relate to the infamous Anglo Leasing scandal, in which Kenya is said to have lost billions of shillings in dubious security procurement tenders.
Botswana’s Festus Gontebanye Mogae is also silent about cries by MPs about vice-president Ian Khama’s authoritarianism. He recently threatened to dissolve Parliament if MPs did not endorse Khama’s presidential bid. Khama is also the minister for presidential affairs in charge of communications, the Botswana Defence Forces, police, the media and the civil service, leaving other ministers with little to handle.
In Sudan, religion and politics have blended into a potent mix that has sucked in the vice-presidency. President Omar Hassan el-Bashir has differed with his first vice-president Salva Kiir over proposals for United Nations forces to take over from African troops monitoring a truce in the Darfur region. While Bashir insists that such a proposal can only be considered after a peace deal is reached with the Darfur rebels, Kiir feels UN troops could go to Darfur even before such an agreement is signed.
Although less charismatic than John Garang, the man he succeeded as Sudanese First Vice-President and President of Southern Sudan, Kiir is viewed with suspicion by northerners. Like Garang, who died in a plane crash last year, he is perceived as a supporter of secession of the south.
Significantly, Kiir’s first official trip in September 2005 was to Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a man who does not see eye-to-eye with Bashir.
Sudanese opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, a former Bashir ally, once claimed that top Sudanese leaders planned Mubarak’s botched assassination attempt in Addis Ababa in 1995. The Sudanese case is similar to Nigeria’s, where President Olusegun Obasanjo and his Vice-President Atiku Abubakar have fallen out.
Although Obasanjo has not publicly said he wants to go for a third term, he is "under pressure" from supporters to do so and looks likely to give in. Obasanjo has previously accused Abubakar of disloyalty.
Last month, after Abubakar attended a meeting opposing attempts to change the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency, a presidential spokesman demanded his resignation.
Among those at the meeting was Muhammadu Buhari, who lost the presidential election to Obasanjo in 2003. It may be a coincidence, but last August, US federal agents raided Abubakar’s home in Maryland, and President George Bush hosted Obasanjo at the White House in March.
Like Buhari, Abubakar is a Muslim, while Obasanjo is a Christian. In some African countries, that would not be much of a problem, but for Nigeria, it is such a powder keg that even censuses avoid asking people their religion.
Mbeki’s love-hate relationship with Zuma is the latest showcase. Zuma had been accused of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman. According to the court verdict last week, he is not guilty of rape.
His case was quite similar to that of Uganda’s Dr Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s main challenger in the presidential elections in February.
Like Zuma, Besigye had been accused of raping a friend’s daughter. In both trials, the prosecution failed to prove its case, and the politicians were acquitted. A constitutional court also cleared Besigye of charges of concealment of treason.
Zuma’s popularity during the trial — as seen in the crowds that kept vigil on his website, http://www.friendsofjz.co.za — was comparable to Besigye’s on his return from exile last October. Zuma worked with President Thabo Mbeki in ANC during the apartheid era, Besigye fought alongside Museveni in the bush.
Although Zuma said after the acquittal that he did not see Mbeki’s hand in his trials, his supporters once sang: "Nelson Mandela tell Mbeki to release Zuma so that he can rule the country."
But the two politician’s tales diverge after the trials. Zuma still faces a corruption case in July, while Besigye is contemplating suing the Government of Uganda for wrongful confinement.
Zuma’s political future gets murkier, considering that he heads the ruling party. To his credit, he volunteered to suspend his activities in ANC until his cases are over. Should his corruption case flop, his supporters will have a double celebration and his presidential ambitions could pick up.
In Malawi, President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha have fallen out. Mutharika claims that Chilumpha was plotting a coup.
Although a judge ruled in February that Mutharika could not sack Chilumpha until the Constitutional Court confirmed he had the powers to do so, his ministers accused Chilumpha of disloyalty and running a parallel administration.
From the Malawian example, African presidents might learn that sacking vice-presidents may not be the wisest thing to do. In Zambia, President Levi Mwanawasa sacked his Vice-President Nevers Mumba in 2004 for accusing the Democratic Republic of Congo before a UN General Assembly. A former televangelist who also loves boxing, Mumba has taken on Mwanawasa and will run for the presidency like he previously did in 2001.
The writer is a sub-editor with The East
African Standard
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