Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa has emerged as the favourite to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president of South Africa in a survey. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel emerges as second favourite choice of South Africans and official opposition leader Tony Leon is in third place.
The survey by Markinor, released on Tuesday, comes in the wake of the announcement that the African National Congress’s deputy president Jacob Zuma will be withdrawing from participation from ruling party structures “pending the completion of the legal process” so as to allow his organisation to function smoothly without pressure while he faces charges of corruption.
The National Prosecuting Authority announced on Monday that Zuma will face prosecution on two counts of corruption.
The survey thus took out Zuma, who was axed as the nation’s deputy president last week, as a prospective successor for president, although it said he had come up as a prospective successor in the survey.
The survey was conducted from 28 October to 30 November last year among 3Â 500 randomly selected respondents from all walks of life.
Asked who would be Mbeki’s successor, Ramaphosa — who emerged with the most votes for the ANC’s national executive committee at the 1997 ruling African National Congress (ANC) national conference but slipped to second position behind Manuel at the 2002 conference — emerged as the top candidate.
Among ruling African National Congress supporters he was also the strongest candidate for president — gaining 12% of ANC supporters with Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota coming in second and Manuel third spot — with 4,2% and 3,8% respectively.
Lekota, however, slips down to fifth place among all South Africans of all race groups and political allegiances.
Among Democratic Alliance supporters party leader Tony Leon comes in first with 31% but Manuel is a close second with 14% support followed by Ramaphosa with 7%.
Among blacks in general Ramaphosa is the favourite with 10% support followed by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma with 5%, Lekota with 4%, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa with 3%, Manuel with 2,5% and Leon with 0,9%.
Among whites in general Leon is the favourite with 19%, followed by Manuel with 15% and Ramaphosa with 7%. Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille comes in with 5% among whites with Lekota coming in behind her with 1,7% and Dlamini-Zuma with 0,7%.
Among coloureds Manuel comes in with 17% — behind De Lille who gets 22%. Falling into third place is Ramaphosa with 10% and Leon pulls in 9% and Holomisa with 2%.
The overall ranking is Ramaphosa in first spot with 10% across the board, followed by Manuel with 6%, Leon with 5%, Dlamini-Zuma — the ex-wife of the axed former deputy president — coming in with 4% support. Lekota comes in at fifth place with 3,3%, De Lille is sixth with 2,8% and Holomisa is seventh with 2,6%.
Altogether 17% of respondents said they did not know who would be the successor to Mbeki and the remainder chose a range of other candidates. Whites registered the highest “don’t know” count — at 32%, with 23% of DA supporters saying they did not know. ‒ I-Net Bridge