Succession bomb rocks ANC

2004-09-26 13:24

Jimmy Seepe

Johannesburg - Gauteng ANC leadership has thrown down the gauntlet by requesting discussion with the party's national leaders about President Thabo Mbeki's successor in 2009.

More than two years before the ANC has to choose a new leader at a national conference, the influential Gauteng district has called on the national leadership to encourage the party's structures at all levels to discuss a successor for Mbeki.

The request upset the ANC because it is in direct opposition to a formal request from the national leadership that such discussions be discouraged. The national leadership requested that the focus must instead be on the challenges facing the country and the party.

Gauteng ANC co-ordinator David Makhura confirmed that the provincial executive committee had suggested to the national leadership that discussions should be held about Mbeki's successor.

"We want the issue discussed inside the organisation's structure, instead of being informally discussed by individuals. We are placing it firmly on the agenda," he said.

The suggestion indicated that it could not be taken as a given that deputy president Jacob Zuma would succeed Mbeki, in the same manner Mbeki, then deputy president, succeeded former president Nelson Mandela in 1997.

It seemed as if the ANC could be entering a long and drawn-out process to choose a successor for Mbeki, who must step down in 2009 according to the Constitution.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Defence Minister and ANC national chairpeson Mosiuoa Lekota have been mentioned as possible successors during the past year.

Businessman and ANC heavyweight Cyril Ramaphosa, businessman and former ANC spokesperson Saki Mcozoma and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel have also been mentioned.

Ramaphosa, a former secretary general of the ANC, has been denying rumours that he was in the race for the presidency.

The ANC in Gauteng brought up the issue of Mbeki's successor in athe wake of an official document titled Building an protection of the unity of the movement. The document requests an honest discussion on national and provincial levels on issues relating to the succession.

The document states that the unity of the ANC will be seriously tested by the critical question of leadership succession on national and provincial level as the 52nd national conference and the 2009 election approach.

This move by the Gauteng ANC could be regarded as a reverse for the political ambitions of deputy president Jacob Zuma, who would have liked to see a seamless succession from being deputy president to being president.

He has said on several occasions that discussion about succession within the ANC was unnecessary.

- City Press