President Thabo Mbeki weighed in on Friday in the succession debate raging in South Africa, saying he wants the next president to be a woman.
”As far as I am concerned, the next president of South Africa should be a woman,” Mbeki told a gathering in Phuthaditjhaba in the south-eastern Free State.
”I can report to you here that there is not a single man in the government, including the president, who works harder and better than the women who are serving in government,” he said in remarks broadcast on SABC radio.
Mbeki named Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as the first woman deputy president in June after he fired Jacob Zuma from the post in a major corruption scandal.
While Zuma retains his title of deputy president of the governing African National Congress, his political career could hit a dead-end on Monday when a judge is to render a verdict on a charge that he raped a young, HIV-positive woman.
Mbeki, who took over the presidency from Nelson Mandela in 1999, recently said he would not seek a third term in office, dispelling speculation that he would try to hold on to power after his mandate ends in 2009.
The ANC is due to choose the candidate who will lead the party into elections at its congress in 2007. — AFP
