South African President Thabo Mbeki said he has no plans to appoint the deputy president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to the Cabinet or make other changes to accommodate allies of ANC leader Jacob Zuma.
Mbeki, who lost the leadership of the ANC to Zuma in a bitterly contested election in December, told the Star there was no truth to reports that he would appoint ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe to his Cabinet.
Media have speculated that Motlanthe, a left-leaning intellectual popular among Zuma supporters, could replace Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, an Mbeki ally who took over from Zuma when he was fired in 2005 in an arms-deal scandal.
”Kgalema has not raised that. I speak to Kgalema quite often … nobody in the ANC has ever suggested such a thing to me. Nobody,” the newspaper quoted Mbeki as saying in a report on Monday. He added it was not necessary to fire any of his current ministers.
Analysts have said appointing Motlanthe to the Cabinet could narrow some of the fault lines that have developed between Mbeki’s government and the Zuma-controlled ANC and allow for an easier transition when Mbeki steps down in 2009.
The frontrunner to succeed Mbeki, Zuma is due to go on trial for corruption in August in a case that could overlap with the general elections next year. Motlanthe may be a compromise candidate if the ANC leader is forced to bow out of the race.
Zuma, who has stirred investor fears with his ties to trade unions and communists, has said he will step down as ANC leader if he is convicted. He is charged with money-laundering, racketeering, fraud and corruption.
Motlanthe’s stock within the ANC rose two months ago when he cooled tempers that flared between supporters of Mbeki and Zuma on the convention floor in Limpopo province, where delegates overwhelmingly elected Zuma.
The ANC’s electoral dominance in the country virtually assures that its leader will become state president in 2009.
Putting Motlanthe into the Cabinet could also ease growing concerns that two centres of power have developed within the country since Zuma’s election, with one based in the Mbeki-controlled government and the other in the Zuma-led ANC. — Reuters