African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe has no interest in becoming South African president, the Sunday Times reported.
In an interview with the newspaper, Motlanthe said he had no ambitions to succeed President Thabo Mbeki when he quits in 2009.
”In the history of the ANC you cannot have a secretary general who has an ambition to any other position.
”If you have that, you will then have a secretary general who is involved in plotting against other people.”
Motlanthe had been labelled as ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s supporter and seen as a ”compromise” candidate to succeed Mbeki.
He said the decision to support Zuma during his corruption trial was taken at the party’s National General Council.
The challenge for the ANC was to create a space for people to express their opinions without fear or favour.
He said some National Executive Committee members never expressed their opinions.
”They feared that because they were appointed to certain positions, then they owed their fortunes to the people who appointed them.”
Motlanthe said there could have been political interference ”from whatever level” in both Zuma’s rape and corruption cases.
”The decision to charge him was not informed by evidence. It appears that a decision to charge him was taken and then police were sent to investigate. There is a similar pattern in both [Zuma] cases.
He defended Mbeki’s silence on divisions within the party.
”It was a duty of the secretary general and other leaders to attend to some of the problems besetting the ANC,” Motlanthe said. – Sapa