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Cyri
l Ramaphosa, one of South Africa's wealthiest black
businessmen, is being touted as a candidate to succeed President
Thabo Mbeki in 2009, possibly setting him up for a leadership
tussle with former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
The City Press and Rapport newspapers on July 22 cited unidentified
sources as saying Ramaphosa, who founded the country's largest
labor union, has entered the race for the top job. Ramaphosa had no
immediate comment, his personal assistant Melanie Spencer
said.
The reports :can't be completely innocent,” J.P. Landman, a
political analyst whose clients include BOE Private Clients, South
Africa's largest manager of money for wealthy individuals, said by
phone from Johannesburg. “I think he wants the
job.”
The ruling African National Congress will elect a new leader at a
conference in December next year and the winner is likely to become
the nation's next president. Previously, the most popular potential
candidate was Zuma, the deputy president of the ANC with backing
from labour unionists and the ANC's youth league.
Zuma, 64, was fired by President Mbeki in June last year after a
court ruled that Zuma's financial adviser made illicit payments to
him and tried to solicit a bribe for him. Zuma, who will go on
trial for fraud July 31, denies any wrongdoing, and says there is a
plot to discredit him and prevent him from becoming
president.
Ramaphosa, 54, helped found the National Union of Mineworkers in
1982 and led a three-week strike in 1987 that cut output in the
gold industry by a quarter of a million ounces. He later played a
key role in negotiating South Africa's constitution following
all-race elections in 1994.
Nelson Mandela, the country's first democratically elected
president, has described him as “probably the most
accomplished negotiator in the ranks of the ANC” and said he
favoured Ramaphosa to succeed him.
Still, Ramaphosa pulled out of politics in 1996 after losing the
race to succeed Mandela to Mbeki. He set up the Shanduka Group,
which has acquired stakes in companies including Standard Bank
Group Ltd., Africa's largest lender. He is also chairman of Bidvest
Group Ltd., Africa's second-largest company by sales, and of MTN
Group Ltd., the continent's biggest mobile phone company.
He is a director of SABMiller Plc, the brewer of Pilsner
Urquell.
Ramaphosa told Bloomberg last year that he was not interested in
returning to politics. “I am enjoying what I am doing now in
business,” he said.
Ramaphosa remains a member of the ANC's national executive
committee, one of its highest decision-making structures. At the
party's last national conference in 2002, he polled the second
highest number of votes in the committee elections, behind Finance
Minister Trevor Manuel. The party's six top officials, including
Mbeki and Zuma, were automatically appointed to the structure and
didn't contest the poll.
“Ramaphosa has credibility and a track record,” said
Andrew Canter, who helps oversee about $7,1-billion at Cape
Town-based Futuregrowth Asset Management. “He would play very
well with the investor community.”
Nominations for leadership posts will be made by ANC branches in
the months leading up to its national conference next year, party
spokesman Steyn Speed said by telephone from Johannesburg. He
declined to comment on the possibility of Ramaphosa standing.
Ramaphosa “could change a one-horse race into a two-horse
race,” Landman said.