South African President Mbeki resigns

He likened public office to a marathon of long roads, steep hills, loneliness and uncertain rewards at the end and urged South Africans to cherish the freedoms gained by many years of anti-apartheid struggle.

"We should never be despondent if the weather is bad, nor should we turn triumphant because the sun shines," he said.

He traced the achievements of his office, including transforming the economy "resulting in the longest period of sustained economic growth in the history of our country," spurring social progress and winning the right to host the 2010 World Cup.

"Despite the economic advances we have made, I would be first to say that ... the fruits of these positive results are still not fully and equally shared among our people, hence abject poverty coexisting side by side with extraordinary opulence."

He said much more needed to be done to combat the "twin challenges of crime and corruption."

On losing end of power struggle
Mbeki had been on the losing end of a power-struggle to Zuma for months. He lost his bid for a third term as ANC president to Zuma at the party congress last December and the knives had been out for him ever since.

Mbeki fired Zuma as national deputy president in 2005, after Zuma's financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted of trying to solicit a bribe to deflect investigations into the arms deal.

Initial charges against Zuma were withdrawn, but the chief prosecutor said last December that he had enough evidence to bring new ones. That was within days of Zuma being elected ANC chief. Judge Chris Nicholson threw out the new charges last week on a technicality and implied they were the result of political interference.

But he made no pronouncement on Zuma's guilt or innocence.

Nicholson's verdict gave Mbeki opponents the ammunition they needed.

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said even opposition parties were stunned at the suddenness of Mbeki's ouster.

"The vicious way in which Mbeki was forced out by his enemies has shocked the nation," she said.

Zille said Mbeki leaves a "checkered legacy" because of his refusal to accept the causes and seriousness of the AIDS epidemic, which now kills more than 900 South Africans per day, and his refusal to criticize Mugage.

"His denialism of HIV/Aids and crime cost thousands of lives; he undermined his own vision of an African renaissance by siding with despots on the continent," Zille said. "He has left South Africa more divided than when he assumed office."

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