Mbeki keeps silent on Zuma

2006-09-26 00:07

Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki still has no comment on the striking from Pietermaritzburg High Court roll of corruption charges against former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said this on Monday as Mbeki arrived in the Ivory Coast as an African Union mediator aiming to revive the country's stalled peace process.

Mbeki was due to meet President Laurent Gbagbo, transitional prime minister Charles Konan Banny and other parties to the peace process during his stay, said Ratshitanga.

He said calls on Mbeki to comment on Zuma had intensified since the president's attendance of Heritage Day festivities in Cape Town on Sunday.

'No statement to be made'

Mbeki apparently ignored a journalist's questions about Zuma on his arrival at the Grand Parade, in Cape Town.

Asked by the same journalist to answer a question again on his departure, the president replied: "No, no, no, no, tomorrow."

The journalist inferred that the president would be making a statement about Zuma on Monday, said Ratshitanga from the Ivory Coast.

This was not the case, he said. "There is no statement to be issued."

Mbeki would be making a statement on his visit to the Ivory Coast on its conclusion, he said.

In his first press conference since the case against him was struck from the roll, Zuma dismissed suggestions that he and Mbeki were not speaking.

There was absolutely "nothing extraordinary" about their lack of communication on the court ruling, he said.

Mbeki had been out of the country and he had been out of reach at his homestead in rural Nkandla.

"We meet every Monday," he said, adding that the subject would no doubt be part of their next discussion.

Mbeki accused of bias

Mbeki was expected to remain in the Ivory Coast for about 24 hours.

He has been accused of bias in the peace process by the Ivorian opposition.

On Sunday, New Forces (FN) rebel leader Guillaume Soro wrote to the head of the African Union, Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, calling for Mbeki to be replaced as chief mediator.

Once an economic powerhouse, the former French colony has been divided into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south since a brief civil war that broke out in 2002 when rebels tried to topple Gbagbo.

- SAPA