Letters

John Murphy's letter, "Mbeki's grace under pressure makes him a hard man to replace" (Cape Times, June 16), raises the constitutional prohibition on presidential third terms.

First, this refers only to the post of president. President Thabo Mbeki has indisputably been South Africa's most energetic and successful minister of foreign affairs since 1910. It is not unusual in other countries, such as Italy, for a former prime minister to subsequently serve in a foreign affairs or other ministerial portfolio.

We should do the same, unless the post-2009 Mbeki is in a top African Union post.

Second, more reliable than a presidential personality confronting corruption, are the statutory safeguards.

I lobbied for years for what became the Register of Members' Interests. Unfortunately parliament watered this safeguard down, by segregating it into a public and a confidential section.

This enabled the former deputy president to exploit the loophole by reportedly entering in the public section of the register only that he had been given the gift of a cow. He reportedly kept secret in the confidential section that he had been given gift "loans" of over R1 million from a businessman dependent on state contracts.

This statutory loophole thwarted parliament and the media from doing their duty of oversight over the executive. The "confidential" option amounts to legalised contempt of parliament and the voters.

To make all of the register available for media inspection is essential to thwart corrupt gift-giving before it becomes a national scandal. This would have prevented the need for the painful decision that the president had to make.

With acknowledgements to Keith Gottschalk and the Cape Times.