Ramaphosa not making come-back

2003-10-25 18:58

Cape Town - The ANC has dismissed as speculation media reports that former party heavyweight Cyril Ramaphosa is plotting a political comeback.

Speaking on Saturday from the ANC's Western Cape election candidate list conference in Gugulethu near Cape Town, provincial spokesperson Gert Witbooi called the report "a matter of finding an attractive angle for a story".

He said Ramaphosa himself had phoned ANC provincial leader Ebrahim Rasool to "express his discomfort with the article", which had appeared in several newspapers around the country on Saturday morning.

"It really is speculation; there is nothing in it," Witbooi said.

The story followed the appearance earlier this week of Ramaphosa's name on the provisional Western Cape candidate list for the national assembly, one of a total of 92 such nominees.

Witbooi said that although Ramaphosa's name was on the list, "he still has the right to withdraw after respectfully observing the process".

'Testing the waters'

According to one Western Cape political analyst, quoted in the report, Ramaphosa could be "testing the waters" before launching a challenge for the presidency in 2009, after President Thabo Mbeki's second term in office expires.

Witbooi said the list conference was proceeding well, and the party would issue the results either later in the day or on Sunday.

The ANC together with Cosatu, the SA Communist Party, the SA National Civics Organisation and the Congress of South African Students have all mandated delegates to attend the conference.

Earlier this week, Rasool said because of the nature of the event it was usually "fraught with tension", which the media and the ANC's political opponents sought to exploit.

- SAPA