Politics.za

Past cabinet minister and current ANC NEC member Kader Asmal has come out quit openly in his support for Cyril Ramaphosa:

Meanwhile, amid calls for a “new generation” of leaders, Asmal said he hoped “a thousand” more ANC branches would nominate Ramaphosa for the party’s presidency.

Explaining his nomination last week by the Gaby Shapiro branch in Rondebosch – which has five cabinet ministers as members – the former education minister said Ramaphosa was the perfect candidate for the job.

“He’s got the quality of leadership we need,” said Asmal.

I’m not sure if Asmal’s opinions are any indication of what the current thoughts are in the Mbeki camp. Mbeki and Ramaphosa were rivals before Mbeki came to power in 1997, an event that led to Ramaphosa quitting active politics (but not his position on the ANC NEC).

Meanwhile ANC Youth League leader Fikile Mbalula warned possible candidate Tokyo Sexwale:

Because you have money, you think you can buy everyone with a heartbeat who can pronounce your name

Doesn’t Sexwale know that if you want to buy off the ANCYL your surname has to be ‘Kebble’?

Following the Sunday Times/Manto fight, Minister in the Presidency (and head of GCIS) Essop Pahad has said that government should pull it’s advertisements from the Sunday Times.

This can’t happen soon enough. It always irks me to open up the Sunday Times only to see the Limpopo Dept of Education using their budget to buy half page ads commemorating the Premier’s birthday instead of using that R50 000 (or whatever the going rate is) to I don’t know… buy books? Employ a teacher perhaps?

The Sunday Times headline story is reporting that former Premier of Gauteng, and now high powered businessman (and reality TV star) Tokyo Sexwale has supposedly made it known to high ups in the ANC that he is in the running for the presidency of the ANC, and therefore the presidency of the country.

While I’m sure Sexwale would’t be the worst president ever I don’t think he has much of a chance of being elected. Firstly he is not a member of the ANC NEC and if the ANC were to elect a business leader as leader I’m pretty sure Cyril Ramaphosa (who is a member of the ANC NEC, and not so much a TV glory hound as Sexwale seems to be) would be their first choice. Secondly his position (along with Ramaphosa but probably slightly more so) as the face of BEE fuelled corporate excess will probably not endear him to the COSATU/SACP branch of the tri-partite alliance.

Update: As expected, Sexwale denies presidential ambitions. Until the ANC changes the way it elects leadership these reports of someone making their candidacy known and their almost immediate denial will occur with increasing frequency.

Why does the ANC continue to persist that there is no campaigning within in it’s ranks for positions of leadership. Even Zuma, who everyone knows is gunning for the Presidency, has to publicly parrot the party line.

There is no campaigning in the ANC. You don’t run for a position.

I guess the voters at the NEC elections in December just know in their deepest heart of hearts who wants to be President.

Thabo Mbeki has reiterated his belief that the next president of South Africa should be a woman. Perhaps he’s doing this merely to quell intra party succession fighting, but most probably he really does believe this should be the case. Whether there are any women in the ANC who are popular enough is another story.

I can report to you here that there is not a single man in the government, including the president, who works harder and better than the women who are serving in government

You know if you had to stack up the accomplishments of Trevor Manuel and Tito Mboweni against Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and Stella Sigcau I think the men would come out on top.

Well judging by the complete lack of response to the the President’s State of the Nation in the SA blogosphere and the rather muted responses from opposition leaders it seems that it was rather boring filled with everything the President is expected to say. The only thing cauing any comment is the government’s indication they might review the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ approach to land reform which is moving along slowly. Which has been hinted at for months now so it’s not really that much of a bombshell anyway.

Anyway on to the important stuff. Anyone know when it’s time for the budget speech?