Jacob Zuma
The front-runner. Zuma is charismatic, though damaged by both the corruption trial of Schabir Shaik and his rape trial earlier this year. He was acquitted but in the course of his defence showed his commitment to non-sexism to be paper-thin.
Unifier. He is widely regarded as a unifier who showed respect for the tripartite alliance partners, South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, when African National Congress president Thabo Mbeki sidelined them.
Diplomat. Zuma did well in peace-making in Burundi and he is well liked on the continent.
Bottom up. He is the candidate of the left, but he has no independent record of fighting conservative economic policies when he was deputy president
Aids. While he was deputy president, Zuma was never a denialist.
Party senior.
Aids. In the course of the rape trial Zuma showed a lack of basic knowledge about infection; he also set back the course of effective prevention strategies by having unsafe sex.
Moral rectitude.
Technocratic skill. Zuma would not be an intellectual president and would require a strong team around him.
Kgalema Motlanthe
If the ANC goes for a party man as future president, this is he.
Unifier. The top characteristic of the ANC secretary general is that of a unifier. A wily operator, he has managed to stay above the fray of the fight between incumbent Mbeki and his former deputy, Jacob Zuma.
Anatomy of an ideal presidential candidate
What characteristics should South Africa’s next president have? View our graphic.
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Tough pragmatist. It fell to him to carve out a compromise at last year’s incendiary national general council. The only senior ANC leader to criticise Zimbabwe’s treatment of its opposition.
He was honest enough to say local government protests were based on genuine grievances.
No experience of state management. He has never held a position in government.
He was at the centre of the Oilgate scandal in which ANC-aligned businessman Sandi Majali siphoned state funds to the ruling party to fight the 2004 election.
Cyril Ramaphosa
It was former United States president Franklin Roosevelt who said nothing in politics happens by accident. “If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Last week’s lead story in City Press suggesting that Ramaphosa had thrown his hat into the ring has set the agenda this week. Whether he likes it or not, Ramaphosa’s name has been upgraded from whisper to vuvuzela status in the succession race.
Diplomat par excellence, he led the drafting of the Constitution and the transfer of power negotiations.
Democrat at heart.
Reconciler. He comes closest to the Madiba-mould of national reconciliation.
Business’s man.
Once a trade unionist, now the face of business, but it’s worth remembering that he led the field in the elections to the ruling party’s executive in 2002.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
The woman Mbeki would like to anoint as his successor. She has steered clear of the fray, preferring to perfect her Frenchand execute the president’s foreign policy objectives. Once a front-runner, her fortunes have dimmed along with that of her boss.
Party senior.
Diplomat. Dlamini-Zuma has made sure that South Africa’s foreign policy is coherent and consistent.
A committed feminist.
Thick skin. She would drive through tough decisions. Like her current boss, Mbeki, she would make another wise, pragmatic but cold president.
She does not have a unifying spirit and has not run a happy ship at foreign affairs.
Grassroots. Dlamini-Zuma is not known among the party’s rank and file; and where she is known, she is -combative.
Mosioua Lekota
The ANC national chairperson is an abrasive individual but his strong point is that he is the archetypal party man.
A unifier and reconciler. He has played a formative role in bringing Afrikaners into the ANC fold. He is from the United Democratic Front and embodies all its principles.
Diplomat. He has also been involved in peace-making on the continent; as defence minister, a large part of his work is diplomatic in nature. With an affable character, this is one of his strongest traits.
Stomach. He is one of few ANC leaders to have criticised Zuma for his lapses in judgement.
Senior party man but the grassroots activists of the Free State rejected him as premier, while his military styled tactics in Khutsong ahead of the election did not work either.
Grassroots. He may have lost touch.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
The outsider in the race. Mlambo-Ngcuka is believed to have accepted a poisoned chalice when she became deputy president. Her tale is likely to be that of the princess who never became queen.
Diplomat. Mlambo-Ngcuka is well-known on the international and continental stages.
Technocrat. She is the candidate with the best technocratic skill to run a government. She is the steward of government’s revised economic growth policy, the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa.
A political lightweight, she does not enjoy the confidence of the Alliance partners.
Moral rectitude. Her crane-spotting expedition to Dubai in December has stayed with her; and her brother’s involvement in Oilgate (he received money from Majali) did not help matters either.