adminJOHANNESBURG — South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will challenge President Jacob Zuma for leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) next week, spicing up a one-sided race for the top political position in Africa’s biggest economy.
Motlanthe aide Thabo Masebe ended months of speculation about next week’s internal ANC election in the central city of Bloemfontein, saying Motlanthe would enter the contest after winning the backing of two of South Africa’s nine provinces.
“I understand he will contest the presidency,” Masebe told Reuters yesterday.
Despite Motlanthe’s challenge, 70-year-old Zuma remains firm favourite to win re-election as head of the ANC, a position that tees him up for a second five-year term as state President in a 2014 general election.
Nelson Mandela’s 100-year-old former liberation movement retains the strong emotional support of most of South Africa’s black majority, making its defeat at the ballot box in the next 10 years highly unlikely.
Zuma won wide support from ANC branches in five provinces, meaning that — barring any last-minute mishaps — he should be re-elected in Bloemfontein.
The previous ANC election, in the northern city of Polokwane in 2007, was a chaotic, riotous affair that led ultimately to Zuma’s ousting of then-President Thabo Mbeki.
Meanwhile, hospitalised former statesman Nelson Mandela is “recuperating” after receiving treatment for a lung infection, President Zuma said yesterday.
The anti-apartheid icon, who has been in hospital for six days, was recovering, said Zuma, ahead of the unveiling of a Mandela statue in the central city of Bloemfontein.
“Madiba is recuperating from a lung infection at a Pretoria hospital,” he said using Mandela’s clan name.
“We wish him a speedy recovery and assure him yet again, of the love and support of many in the country and abroad.”
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP “his condition continues to improve,” but he could not say when the statesman would be discharged.
Zuma paid tribute to his predecessor as “a man who became a symbol of both our struggle for freedom and the free and democratic South Africa.” — Reuters-AFP.
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