It had to happen.

After two weeks of intense debate on the political future of Jacob Zuma, one of South Africa's most loved political luminaries, and in the aftermath of the fraud and corruption verdict of his financial advisor Schabir Shaik, the curtain has finally come down.

President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday afternoon fired his deputy from his position and from the cabinet. It was probably the hardest call Mbeki has had to make since he succeeded Nelson Mandela as President of both the ANC and country in 1999.

Zuma was not even in Parliament in Cape Town when Mbeki told the nation he had been sacked. Mbeki flew back home from Chile on 9 June into the eye of a storm created by the Shail trial, and kept the media and the world waiting on what his decision would be. He, however, indicated he would deal with the issue.

And Mbeki, being a man of his word, did deal with the crisis on Tuesday. Mbeki was expected to have acted on Zuma when he flew back into the country, but the suspense created would leave Hollywood script writers in awe.

But in the end a man had to do what a man had to do. A Mbeki had to do what a Mbeki had to do, as some say in the smokey and dingy bars of Hillbrow.

Said Mbeki in his speech to Parliament; "... as President of the Republic I have come to the conclusion that the circumstances dictate that in the interest of the Honourable Deputy President, the Government, our young democratic system, and our country, it would be best to release the Hon Jacob Zuma from his responsibilities as Deputy President of the Republic and Member of the Cabinet.

"Personally, I continue to hold the Hon Jacob Zuma in high regard, and I am convinced that this applies to most Members of Parliament.

"We have worked together under difficult and challenging conditions for thirty years. In this regard, I wish to thank him for the service that he has rendered as part of the Executive, at national and provincial levels, sparing neither strength nor effort to ensure that, with each passing day, we build a better life for all South Africans.

"I am certain that I speak on behalf of all who have served with him in Cabinet when I say that we shall remain friends, colleagues and comrades in the service of the people. And, as government, we shall continue to draw on his experience and expertise where the need arises.

"In due course, I shall announce the necessary changes in the Executive to take account of the void that the departure of Deputy President Jacob Zuma has created."

And Zuma can't say he did not see it coming.

After Shaik, the dodgy Durban businessman whom Judge Hilary Squires described as having had "a generally corrupt relationship" with Zuma over the years, was found guilty on three counts of fraud and corruption, South African politics was thrown into chaos.

Shaik was found guilt on all three counts and given an effective 15 year jail sentence and a R3,9 million fine. He was found to have used Zuma to further his own business interests, and in return the Deputy President received financial windfalls.

Last week and the week before, calls were growing that Zuma step down, but the former ANC head of intelligence in exile, notably in Zambia, was defiant, saying he had not seen his day in court and therefore would not quit despite the damning verdict by Judge Squires, a former cabinet minister in the Ian Smith regime in the former Rhodesia.

Zuma also blamed the media, saying they had tried him and yet the Scorpions, South Africa's elite investigations unit, had investigated him for years and not found anything that would stick.

Former Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka had at the time said that although they had prima facie evidence of corruption against Zuma, they did not have enough to prosecute on.

They nailed Shaik instead.

But the trial, described by some as the political trial of Jacob Zuma, found there was a corruptor in Shaik. The corruptee, Zuma, was never brought before the courts.

However, Judge Squires found Shaik guilty on two counts of corruption (each carrying a minimum of 15 years), and one of fraud (minimum three years in jail).

Shaik has appealed against the judgement. His leave-to-appeal hearing has been set for 26 July. Talk in SA now is that Zuma may be charged, too. And if he does, these are the three areas he would have to deal with:

• that he had had a generally corrupt relationship with Shaik;
• that he negotiated and accepted a bribe from arms manufacturer Thales, and got R500 000 a year cut;
• that he lied to Parliament by submitting a loan agreement which Judge Squires found to be fals.

Earlier media reports last week suggested that Mbeki, in a fix to deal with Zuma after his corrupt association with Shaik came to light during the seven-month trial in the Durban High Court, dispatched ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, a highly-respected political icon, and former President Nelson Mandela, to persuade Zuma to jump or be made to jump.

Motlanthe, some said, had actually gone to Zuma with a resignation letter drafted for him to sign and save both the ANC and government from further embarassment, but the man from the hills and valleys of rural Nkandla in Kwa Zulu Natal had stood his ground.

At the opening night of Sarafina playwright Mbongeni Ngema's House of Shaka musical at Caesars Palace near the Joburg International Airport, Zuma, accompanied and flanked by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, proclaimed: "Ngelusa, ngaqathwa." The loose translation is; "I am a man. I reared cattle. I can fight my own battles."

After that he danced up a storm, seemingly unfazed by the cloud Shaik has stirred around him.

On June 9 a jobs march organised by Cosatu in Johannesburg was hijacked and turned into a a rally for Zuma, with jobless and despondent youths wearing T-shirts and carrying placards supporting Zuma.

"Zuma 4 Life", read some.

Support for Zuma grew, and when he embarked on his imbizo in the pre-dominantly Xhosa Eastern Cape, where Mbeki and Mandela hail from, it was clear to some that Zuma's Zulu background would not disadvantage him anywhere in South Africa.

But inside Luthuli House, the ANC's headquarers in downtown Jo'burg, and inside Union Building, where the Presidency is housed in Pretoria, things were a lot different. It had nothing at all to do with how popular Zuma was on the streets -- he had been found with his pants down and he had to be kicked in the backside.

Even Madiba, the world's most loved and respected statesman, could not drum common sense into Zuma, who for years has been cultivating grassroot support as his ascention to the top job in the country gathered momentum.

Mbeki will quit as President in 2008, but may stay on as leader of the ruling ANC beyond then, and Zuma was highly tipped to take over the reins. Until Shaik went to court, that is.

And while he seemed to still enjoy grassroots support and while labour union Cosatu, its affiliates, the ruling ANC's women and youth leagues and other organisations last week maintained their blind support for the embattled deputy head honcho, in the corridors of power talk was that come hell, come sunshine, Zuma would be sacked.

It happened on Tuesday at 1400hrs.

What Zuma said

Zuma has accepted and "respects" Mbeki's decision to sack him.

He told journalists in Cape Town that it was Mbeki's prerogative to take the decision "in the context and within his authority as the president of the republic".

"I accept and respect his pronouncement. I believe he has taken this decision not because he believes I am guilty of any crime, but because of considerations relating to the constraints within which government operates."

Zuma said he had also offered to resign his seat in parliament not as an admission of guilt of any kind but in order to make it easier for the ANC and the government to function in parliament.

"Let me reiterate that my conscience is clear."

Japhet Ncube is deputy news editor of City Press, a Sunday newspaper based in Johannesburg.

With acknowledgements to Japhet Ncube and New Zimbabwe Online.