Monday 22 September 2008

Baleka Mbete for President?



Chances are that Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete will be announced to stand in as caretaker President until the next election, here's a taste of her track record:

Mbete is a shareholder in Dyambu Holdings which is involved in building the massive Gautrain public transport project in the province Gauteng. Dyambu Holdings is reported to have had links with murdered magnate Brett Kebble.

In April 1997, Mbete was found to have received an improperly issued driver's license but not charged with any wrongdoing. This after investigators uncover widespread corruption in Mpumalanga regional driving license testing centers, where licenses are being issued in exchange for bribes. Mbete said that she had been "too busy" to stand in queues.

In 2007, Mbete suspended DA member Mike Waters after he attempted to ask what was being done about the Manto Tshabalala-Msimang scandal. Waters had asked about a reported conviction for theft of the Minister of Health, while the latter had been a nurse in Botswana.

Mbete was one of more than 200 South African parliamentarians found to have misused subsidised travel privileges in the Travelgate scandal. She is reported to have paid back all moneys due in the liquidation of the travel agency former providing services to parliament.

In 2006, Mbete chartered a jet at a cost of R471 900 (around US$60 000) to fly to Liberia for the inauguration of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president. The only other passenger on the plane was a member of her staff. Then president Thabo Mbeki and foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also travelled to the inauguration - Mbeki in his private plane and Dlamini-Zuma by commercial flight.

She has been a staunch supporter of Tony Yengeni, a former ANC Chief Whip in parliament, who was convicted of defrauding parliament in 2004, even accompanying Yengeni to Pollsmoor Prison when he reported to serve his sentence.

If the ANC is going to use the corruption card to redeploy Thabo Mbeki, not casting it's gaze inwards without prejudice is inexcusable.

Sources: ANC, Wikipedia

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