Wealthy businessman Cyril Ramaphosa is preparing a bid for leadership of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and by extension a run for the nation’s presidency when Thabo Mbeki retires in 2009, associates said on Monday.
The ANC will hold internal elections in December 2007, and whoever wins the party leadership is a shoo-in for the country’s Presidency when general elections are held two years later and Mbeki is no longer eligible to stand.
South African newspapers reported Ramaphosa had entered the race for the ANC presidency with the backing of former President Nelson Mandela and the business community.
On Monday, business leaders close to Ramaphosa confirmed the reports, raising the tempo in the battle to lead the continent’s biggest economy.
”He is preparing an active bid for the presidency of the party, and by extension the state,” said a businessman with knowledge of Ramaphosa’s plans. ”He has not made a definite decision yet, but you cannot win without proper groundwork.”
Ramaphosa was not immediately available for comment.
Skills honed at the helm of South Africa’s largest mine workers’ union have won Ramaphosa a place at the pinnacle of the country’s new black elite, while he has spotless credentials from the anti-apartheid struggle.
He is probably South Africa’s best-known businessman globally and one of the country’s wealthiest black men.
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma, who remains Mbeki’s deputy within the ANC, is still in the race despite a damaging rape trial in which he won an acquittal and an impending court case for corruption due to begin this month.
He rejects the graft charges as part of a shadowy conspiracy to block his path to the Presidency.
Zuma’s successor as South Africa’s Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has said she will not be a candidate but analysts believe she is biding her time and could still make a late entry if she believed she had Mbeki’s backing.
”With Zuma in the dock [for the graft trial] and Mlambo-Ngcuka reluctant to enter the fray, Ramaphosa is looking good. Many within the ANC believe Mbeki will support Ramaphosa against a Zuma candidature,” another Ramaphosa associate said.
”Against that background, it would not be wrong to say that he is looking at a possible campaign team,” she said, but declined to be identified by name.
Ramaphosa (53) gave up politics in 1996 — some say he was pushed out by Mbeki — with a mission to dilute the dominance of the white minority on the boardrooms of the new South Africa.
Critics say his amiable smile, framed by a neatly trimmed moustache, hides a coldly calculating brain.
Ramaphosa, who seldom grants interviews, has been the subject of constant speculation that he has an eye on the Presidency. He has repeatedly brushed aside the reports, saying he is firmly set on business.
But Ramaphosa remains in the ANC’s top decision-making bodies, guaranteeing a place at the table when the party’s future is decided. His role has also helped maintain links to party grassroots leaders who will vote for the next ANC leader.
Ramaphosa has a substantial corporate presence spanning mining, financial services, the media, advertising and newsprint. — Reuters