Some years ago Cyril Ramaphosa was tipped to be president of South Africa, but today he says he's having "too much fun" in the business world to think of taking on the post.

"I'll do it in a hundred years," he said, laughing, at Parliament yesterday after President Thabo Mbeki's state of the nation address.

Ramaphosa was general secretary of the African National Congress, and its chief negotiator in the talks with the apartheid government that led to the 1994 democratic elections.

It is no secret that the one-time unionist was former president Nelson Mandela's first choice as his successor, he left active politics in 1997 to go into the business world.

Though his day-to-day life is largely bound up in mining, financial services and media interests that include the chairmanship of Johnnic holdings, his popularity within the ANC remains high.

In 1997 he polled the most votes in elections for the ANC's National Executive Committee and came second behind Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in Stellenbosch at the end of 2002.

He said yesterday he found it "exhilarating" to be at Parliament on the tenth anniversary of democracy.

Asked if this tempted him to return, he said: "It gives me a nostalgia.

I miss the people, I miss the environment, but we all have to work in different terrains".

Asked whether he ever had any thoughts about presidential office, he replied "No, no, no. I'm enjoying what I'm doing immensely, very, very much so. It's not an issue that ever crosses my mind, because I'm happy where I am.

"I'm having so much fun".

Earlier, in his speech, Mbeki appeared to reject the possibility that he would seek a third term as president, saying this was speculation by "doomsayers".

Ramaphosa said Mbeki had in his speech given a "very good context" on where the country was coming from and what it had achieved in the last decade, and had also opened a window on where it was going in the years ahead.

"He gave a very well-balanced speech in my view".

He said the past decade had witnessed changes in the policy framework both in terms of the management of the economy at a macro-economic level, as well as at the micro level in terms of legislation allowing those who were previously excluded from the economy to participate.

"That's the framework. At the implementation level, I think the president said a lot of things still need to be implemented. Much has already been done, a lot more needs to be done, but in terms of policies there's not much that needs to change". – Sapa.