President Thabo Mbeki said Sunday he would not seek a third term at the helm of Africa's economic powerhouse. "By the end of 2009, I will have been in a senior position in government for 15 years, and I think that is too long," Mbeki said in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corp. "After 15 years, I think one should really step aside."Mbeki, who served as Nelson Mandela's deputy before succeeding him as president in 1999, fired his own deputy in June after he was implicated in a graft scandal. Jacob Zuma's dismissal threw open the question of who would succeed Mbeki at the end of his second term in 2009. South Africa's constitution limits a president to two terms. But the South African National Civic Organization, an ally of the governing African National Congress, proposed recently that the possibility of a third term should be explored.
| That way he could stay in office until he either died of old age or was removed in a coup, just like all the other African dictators. I'm surprised he didn't take it. Maybe he's a better man than I think he is. |