In Africa coup plots are considered to be the gravest challenge to the continuity of regimes. The incentives for a violent challenge to the state are considered to be a combination of ‘greed and grievance’- the capture of resources, or the rectification of wrongs. On 20 September 2008 Africa experienced its umpteenth coup-in a country, which since 1994 had been perceived to be a paragon of stability and a bastion of democracy-South Africa.

With a virulent and militant determination the newly-elected leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) completed its hostile (some would say) takeover of South Africa with its decision to recall President Thabo Mbeki.

In a move that arguably sent tumultuous shockwaves around the world the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC ‘decided to recall the president of the republic before his term of office expires’, ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe announced.

Following the decision of the NEC to recall President Thabo Mbeki, the Presidency released a statement stating that ‘the president has obliged and will step down after all Constitutional requirements have been met’.

Mantashe described the decision as a means to deal with the implications of the Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris Nicholson’s ruling that Mbeki may have been involved in a political conspiracy against Zuma.

While the decision is said to be based on an effort to heal and unite the ANC, this act of political callousness and recklessness is likely to have severe repercussions for South Africa’s internal security and stability-even though the consequences are not evident yet.

The removal of the Head of State in this manner has been decried by opposition parties ‘as an act of political barbarity that threatens to plunge the country into anarchy.’

The gravest threat facing South Africa is that the African National Congress is increasingly acting as dictatorial and destabilizing force, making decisions that increasingly appear to be solely benefiting the inner circles of its power base, to the detriment of the South African State, the country’s Constitution and its citizenry. It has effectively (and with stealth and calculated shrewdness) carried out a bloodless coup by removing the Head of State- a decision, which is likely to severely undermine the effective functioning of the South African Government and indeed virtually the entire state.