Former president Nelson Mandela is leading a last-ditch attempt to save Deputy President Jacob Zuma as the standoff between Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki intensifies.

This comes amid growing calls for Zuma to step down and after Mbeki said on Monday he would announce his decision on Zuma’s fate after his return from a two-day state visit to Chile that began yesterday.

Sources close to Zuma said Mbeki’s statement amounted to an ultimatum for Zuma to step down or be fired.

They said, however, that Zuma would not quit.

Mandela’s office confirmed yesterday that Mandela had been in touch with African National Congress (ANC) leaders since the weekend over the matter.

Mandela’s spokeswoman, Zelda le Grange, said Mandela had met senior government and ANC figures since Durban High Court Judge Hilary Squires’ conviction of Schabir Shaik ­ Zuma’s financial adviser ­ on corruption and fraud last week.

Le Grange would not be drawn on the outcome of Mandela’s meetings with the ANC top brass. “Mandela is willing to give his opinion and advice to anyone in the ANC who needs it,” she said.

A source in the ANC said Mandela was the only mediator likely to be acceptable to both sides, since his primary interest *1 would be to maintain ANC unity.

But the former president is reliably understood by Business Day to have forced Mbeki onto the back foot on Monday, by making clear his support *2 for Zuma after speaking to the deputy president.

Both Mandela and Zuma have been cast into the limelight recently through the behaviour of close advisers ­ in Mandela’s case the commercialisation of his artworks by a former legal adviser. *3

The Zuma affair is fast becoming the ANC’s worst crisis since Mbeki accused three senior ANC leaders in 1999 of plotting to overthrow him shortly after taking office. The crisis comes on the eve of a crucial ANC policy gathering later this month and next year’s local government elections.

A member of the ruling party’s national executive committee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Zuma’s camp would be amenable to Mandela’s mediation efforts since relations between Zuma and Mbeki had reached an all-time low.

The Zuma camp believes Mbeki is behind efforts to sideline Zuma from the 2007 ANC succession race. Zuma’s office yesterday said Zuma viewed Squires’ judgment and the buildup to Shaik’s trial as “grossly unfair”.

Zuma’s spokeswoman, Lakela Kaunda, said: “He believes the entire process has been grossly unfair ­ from the investigation conducted against him for three years to the outcome of the trial of Shaik, in which he has been practically found guilty in absentia.

“He has his own account of the events*4 referred to in the judgment and, as he said last week, he needs to study the judgment thoroughly before commenting in detail.”

Zuma is reportedly adamant that he will not quit voluntarily and will force Mbeki’s hand to fire him *5. Already his supporters have launched a fightback, with ANC MPs and the KwaZulu-Natal ANC the latest to come to his defence.

Mbeki’s attempts to get senior ANC emissaries to prevail on Zuma to quit backfired at the weekend, sources said.

They said Mbeki had hoped Mandela would persuade Zuma to make a “graceful exit”. Mbeki also dispatched ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe to Zuma with a resignation letter. Both efforts failed as ANC power-brokers lined up behind Zuma instead.

While Mbeki could dismiss his deputy, the Zuma camp is determined to call the president’s bluff because of Zuma’s strong support within the ruling ANC and the tripartite alliance.

With acknowledgements to Vukani Mde, Karima Brown, Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.

*1 Sure?

*2 Just why would this be?

Maybe the source of the R2 million, given by Nelson Mandela to Jacob Zuma, needs to be investigated; as well as the involvement of Yusuf Surtee (Mandela's confidante) and Barbara Masakela (Mandela's ex PA) as two of the main, if not the main, interlocuters acting on behalf of Thomson-CSF in their extra-legal interactions with Nelson Mandela as President and Thabo Mbeki as Deputy President in the frantic bid to secure the corvette combat suite contract with competition.

There is surely more to this than merely keeping a party together.

*3 Not only. The roles of Yusuf Surtee (Thomson-CSF's codename : le Tailleur) and Barbara Masakela (the SA Ambassador to France when the deal was struck to give Thomson-CSF unimpeded the corvette combat suite contract - as long as two years before the contract was signed) were partially ventilated in the Schabir Shaik trial.

*4 He has had over two years to share these with the electorate and citizenry - too late. Do as the wise men from the ANC Youth League say : "Charge him".

*5 Having about as much effect as Torque on rubber.