JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South African President Thabo Mbeki will address the nation after a special cabinet meeting Sunday, the government said, after Mbeki said he would accept calls for his resignation.
"There will be a cabinet meeting tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) and then the president will speak to the nation at 7:30 pm (1730 GMT)," government spokesman Themba Maseko told AFP.
Earlier Saturday, a spokesman for Mbeki said he had accepted a call from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to step down from the presidency in the interests of ANC unity.
The news came after a special meeting of the ANC's leadership to discuss controversial allegations that Mbeki had been influential in pressing corruption charges against his political rival Jacob Zuma.
"The president has obliged and will step down," presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga told 702 Talk Radio in Johannesburg, within hours of the ANC national executive committee's call for him to go.
Mbeki, 66, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in June 1999, had been under pressure since a September 12 court ruling threw out a corruption case against Zuma.
The judge appeared to suggest that Zuma's claims that there had been political pressure to pursue the case against him had some foundation -- an allegation that the president's office denied.
Senior ANC officials had gathered Friday to discuss Mbeki's future.
Then on Saturday, the ANC's secretary general Gwede Mantashe told journalists after a meeting of the party leadership: "The ANC has decided to recall the president of the republic before his mandate has expired.
"Our decision has been concluded, the formalities are now subject to the parliamentary process," he said.
Mbeki "didn't express shock, he welcomed the news," Mantashe added. "We have communicated our decision (to Mbeki) and that we will be going through the parliamentary process. He has agreed to participate in that process."
702 Talk Radio said Mbeki -- a key player in mediating an end to the political crisis in Zimbabwe -- had called a meeting of his government for Sunday to decide the way forward.
Mantashe said the decision to ask him to stand down was taken in the interests of party unity.
"This is not a punishment," he said. "We decided to take this decision in an effort to heal and reunite the ANC."
Government spokesman Themba Maseko told AFP that a special cabinet briefing would be held on Sunday afternoon, whereafter Mbeki would "speak to the nation" in an address broadcast live on radio and television.
Under the South African constitution, the president is appointed by parliament, which has been dominated by the ANC since the end of apartheid and the start of majority rule in May 1994.
Mbeki's term was due to expire in mid-2009. The decision now rests with parliament whether to appoint an interim president and call an early election, or install a full acting president to complete the second term.
The main opposition Democratic Alliance said the decision to recall Mbeki was "motivated by revenge to settle political scores."
"The ANC has turned its internal battles into a crisis for South Africa. ANC factionalism has long undermined government's ability to deliver, and it now threatens to destabilise the entire country," it said in a statement.
The Inkatha Freedom Party said the decision represented the "biggest challenge to South Africa since apartheid."
The main allegation against Zuma in the now-defunct corruption case had been that he had received bribes for protecting French arms company Thint in an investigation into a controversial weapons deal.
The dismissal of the charges cleared the way for Zuma to run for the South African presidency in elections next year.
Judge Chris Nicholson said the decision to throw out the case was not a reflection of Zuma's guilt or innocence, but a technical decision based on his right to make representations before being recharged.
Mbeki fired Zuma as deputy president in 2005 after his financial advisor was jailed for corruption.
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