Former South African finance minister Trevor Manuel said on Friday that he was not vying to be the next head of the International Monetary Fund but wants to focus on driving his country forward.
“Today is the deadline. I haven’t put my hat into the ring as I speak to you,” Manuel told public radio station SAfm.
“My adrenaline is flowing about South Africa right now. It’s where my focus is.”
However Emerging Markets magazine reported that SA would nominate Manuel on Friday.
The magazine cited a “senior and well-placed” source in Pretoria as saying Manuel had won the backing of South Africa President Jacob Zuma and his candidacy would be officially announced on Friday.
Zuma spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told Reuters he wasn’t aware of any imminent announcement. “It’s just a rumour.”
“I’ve said before that it’s not a decision that’s a Trevor Manuel decision. It’s a national decision, it’s a global decision,” said Manuel, saying the post also involved lobbying campaigns by would-be candidates.
“I’ve just been part of this amazing process in the National Planning Commission. We’ve got to turn this country around,” he told the radio station.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is the front-runner to take over at the IMF from compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned after being accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid.
The African Union was the latest voice from developing economies to say on Thursday it would like to see a non-European in the position. It said it would prefer an African but did not name a candidate.
Manuel, who won international plaudits for his careful handling of Africa’s biggest economy for more than a decade, was interviewed for an hour on Friday morning on SABC radio, but no mention was made by either him or the interviewer of the IMF job.
He also refused to be drawn on the issue at a news conference in Cape Town on Thursday. South African newspapers on Friday had no reports about Manuel’s potential candidacy.
Zuma’s office said on Friday the President was due to meet human rights organisations in the morning and church elders in the afternoon, leaving little room in his schedule to launch a major international diplomatic bid.
Kazakhstan central bank governor Girgori Marchenko, who was put forward by Russia and a group of ex-Soviet states in May, was quoted on Friday as saying Lagarde’s accession to the IMF top job was a “done deal”. – Reuters, AFP