Mantashe rules out possibility of third term for Zuma

Speaking to news channel eNCA on Sunday morning at Orlando Stadium in Soweto ahead of the ANC’s 105th birthday celebrations, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe ruled out the possibility of a third term for any ANC president.

He said it would be “unfortunate” if anyone were to try to stand for a third term and that the ANC had taken a resolution not to allow it to happen by taking the position in 2007 that the leader of the party should be the same person who would take the reins as South African president.

EFF leader Julius Malema tweeted on Friday: “#3rdTermLoading mmmmm my lips are sealed but don’t say I didn’t warn you South Africa…”

There is nothing in the ruling party’s constitution that prohibits any party president from standing for a third term. Former president Thabo Mbeki famously did exactly that in 2007 in Polokwane, hoping to defeat a then resurgent Jacob Zuma. Had he won, he would have been the head of the governing party but no longer able to be head of state once his second term as SA president was scheduled to end in 2009.

The South African constitution places a two-term limit on presidents.

It was exactly this fear of having a division of power between party and state that caused many to rally behind Zuma and oppose Mbeki. Mbeki lost to Zuma in 2007 and was recalled as head of the country in 2008.

Mantashe has now confirmed that the ANC remains opposed to a third term. Although it is not expressly stated, the party’s Polokwane resolutions make the party’s position on the matter clear.

The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) has formally thrown its support behind Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed her ex-husband as ANC president as well as South African president, the league said on Saturday. The frontrunner for the position remains Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, due mainly to the fact that the ANC has a tradition of letting the deputy succeed the president.

Mantashe has also confirmed that there are at least eight names in contention to take over the presidency.

Friday’s Mail & Guardian lead article reported on the fact that former deputy president and interim president of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, also has a strong chance of making a political comeback in 2017, due mainly to factionalism in the ANC.

He is being touted as a possible “compromise candidate” to become the ANC president and unite the two big factions in the ruling party, one of which is supporting Ramaphosa, the other Dlamini-Zuma.

The “bitter antagonism between these two groups seems to have opened the door to other candidates”, with Motlanthe being “the first to emerge”.