Apparently President Thabo Mbeki plays his cards close to his chest. Some people think this a virtue. I think he is overly cautious. Apparently the president is not swayed by popular whims. Some think this a virtue. I think it is overdone. Apparently the president relies on his formidable intellect to engage and overwhelm his opponents. Some think this a virtue. I think it is overkill.

If the African National Congress (ANC) is to function effectively, the president has to cut two types of deals, but Deputy President Jacob Zuma would have to agree to make them work. It takes two to tango.

The first deal is a legal one. If the National Prosecuting Authority thinks it has enough evidence to convict Zuma it should charge him with deliberate speed. The more he is left campaigning, the more embedded the rifts in the party will be. Having been charged, the deputy president could then enter a plea bargain in which he admits to wrongdoing in exchange for a light sentence. He could then be granted a presidential pardon.

This is not unusual in cases involving high-level political figures. US president Gerald Ford’s first act in office was to pardon Richard Nixon for his Watergate crimes. In SA we have not even prosecuted people whose hands are dripping with the blood of black people.

Some time ago I was invited by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation to submit an article for a book ­ Provocations on Amnesty. I argued that we should pardon the apartheid monsters and get on with our lives. I questioned the connection that is often made between pardons and a breakdown in the rule of law. The variables that affect people’s attitudes to the law are so numerous ­ alienation, poverty and unemployment among them ­ that it is sheer folly to hang people’s respect for the law on a presidential pardon. Law-abiding citizens are smart enough to understand the political implications of high-level political trials.

This is not an invitation to corruption but a serious warning to those who might be tempted to follow the same route. It could even strengthen the hand of future presidents whenever high-level corruption rears its ugly head. The processes I am suggesting would follow the letter and spirit of the law.

Zuma’s supporters may rail against the idea of a plea bargain. But this is where Nelson Mandela’s metaphor about thinking with our brains and not our hearts becomes particularly apt. Loudly as they may shout, the demonstrators can do very little to overrule the decisions of the courts without imperilling our constitutional democracy.

When all is said and done, Zuma would be left to face the legal music alone. It is encouraging to hear he is ready to be redeployed by the movement.

Those who have his interests at heart ­ not just their anti-Mbeki sentiments ­ would do better to advise the deputy president to cut his losses. Having been pardoned, Zuma could then accept deployment as an ambassador.

This legal deal may leave a bitter taste in his mouth but it looks like the only option he has ­ and infinitely better than a jail cell if he were to be charged and found guilty.

What about the political deal? Here the president may have to go against his instincts and enter into negotiations with the alliance partners. This may be as hard as asking Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to sit down with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. But this rapprochement would not be a sign of weakness on Mbeki’s part ­ rather a bold act of leadership to save the party from further internal bleeding.

Tempted as the president may be to choose as deputy president someone close to him (such as Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Joel Netshitenzhe), even if just to give them play time, I think that Mosiuoa Lekota has the public profile, the mass democratic movement experience, the executive experience, and the seniority in the movement to replace Zuma. Besides, as chairman of the party he is next in line after Zuma. He may also be just the kind of person acceptable to the ANC’s alliance partners.

In the interim, Kgalema Motlanthe would continue to heal the ANC’s wounds. Come 2007, Lekota, the public man, and Motlanthe, the organisational man, could be a formidable duo as president and deputy president respectively.

Mangcu is executive director for social cohesion at the Human Sciences Research Council and nonresident WEB du Bois fellow at Harvard. He writes in his personal capacity.

With acknowledgements to Xolela Mangcu and Business Day.