Motsepe pulls further ahead in symbolic ANC leadership contest
Patrice Motsepe has opened up a clearer lead in a theoretical race to succeed Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC president, according to News24’s latest political coverage.
Patrice Motsepe has opened up a clearer lead in a theoretical race to succeed Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC president, according to News24’s latest political coverage. The Pretoria-born businessman’s rise in the party imagination comes as Ramaphosa faces continuing pressure over the Phala Phala affair.
The contest is not an official election. Still, it matters. In South African politics, speculation about the ANC’s next leader often shapes factional manoeuvring long before delegates cast a vote.
Ramaphosa keeps the rule-of-law line
Ramaphosa has said he will respect the rule of law as the Phala Phala matter continues to move through South Africa’s courts and Parliament. The Constitutional Court has also declined to hear an appeal tied to an interdict in the impeachment process, keeping the dispute alive but not immediately changing the political terrain around him.
That matters for the ANC. Ramaphosa remains president of the country and of the governing party, but the Phala Phala saga has given his critics fresh ammunition. So the conversation around possible successors has not gone away.
A leaderless race with real consequences
Motsepe’s stronger showing in the “theoretical” race reflects the strange logic of ANC succession politics: even without a formal contest, names rise and fall as alliances shift, scandals linger and older rivalries return. The mining billionaire has long been a figure of interest in party circles, partly because he sits outside the daily factional grind.
Not everyone in the broader political field is focused on the same question. The DA, for example, has been working to win back coloured voter support in the Western Cape, while the left has been sharpening its attacks on what it calls the ANC-DA alliance and neoliberal politics. South Africa’s opposition landscape is moving, but the governing party’s internal succession debate still casts a long shadow.
For now, there is no formal ANC leadership race on the table. But as court cases around Ramaphosa continue and party politics churns in the background, the question of who comes after him is likely to stay alive — and Motsepe’s name is now carrying more weight than before.
