Cyril 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.