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(HERALD) Ramaphosa approached to lead ANC

Ramaphosa approached to lead ANC
AFP.

EASTERN CAPE. Billionaire businessman Cyril Ramaphosa has been approached to become the next president of South Africa’s ruling ANC party which chooses its leader later this year, a report said yesterday. Officials from one of the ANC’s most influential branches have earmarked Ramaphosa, the African National Congress’s chief negotiator in the talks which led to the end of apartheid, as a unity candidate amid a bitter stand-off between ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma and incumbent President Thabo Mbeki.

"We have been lobbying Ramaphosa, I must admit," Mlamli Siyakholwa, regional secretary of the O.R. Tambo district in the Eastern Cape told The Sunday Times.

"We feel that with the serious contestation of KwaZulu-Natal strongly in support of Zuma and Eastern Cape strongly in support of Mbeki, the ANC will suffer if either of these two comrades wins," he added.

Ramaphosa’s name has been frequently bandied about as a possible candidate but it is the first time that a party official has acknowledged that he has been approached for the post.

Party tradition prohibits leadership hopefuls from openly campaigning for the job and candidates can only be proposed by branches ahead of a vote among members at a conference in December.

Many analysts believe that Ramaphosa, who has remained tight-lipped about his ambitions, would be the favourite were he to agree to enter the contest for a post which should be the stepping stone to becoming head of state in 2009.

Under the terms of the constitution, Mbeki has to stand down as head of state in 2009 at the end of his second term but he can in theory run again for party president. — AFP.

Labels: ANC, CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICA, THE HERALD

posted by MrK @ 6:06 AM