President Mbeki Says ANC Has Final Decisionon Party Leadership

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Sunday July 1, 2:50 AM

S. Africa's Mbeki says ANC has final decision on party leadership

AFP

South African President Thabo Mbeki said Saturday that the ruling
African National Congress (ANC) has the final say in determining who
leads the party at the expiration of his tenure in 2009.

Speaking in an interview on SABC here, Mbeki said that the ANC would
take a collective decision on its party leadership during its congress
in December.

"That is a matter that we would discuss among the leadership. I don't
think it's an individual decision," he said.

"If the leadership generally said 'look, we believe the interests of the
ANC and the country would be best served if we had somebody else',
that's fine.

"But if they said 'no, you better stay for whatever good reason', that
would be fine. You couldn't act in a way that disrespected such a view,"
he said.

Observers noted that Mbeki's comments were his first open indication
that that he might seek a third term as president of the ANC even after
stepping down as his country's president in 2009.

The country's constitution precludes him from serving a third term as
state president when his current second-term mandate ends.

The ANC policy conference on Friday dealt a blow to ambitions Mbeki may
have to lead the party for a third term -- but did not completely
exclude his candidacy.

Following heated discussions on the preferred method for nominating the
party's candidate for the presidency of the country in national
elections in 2009, the conference expressed a majority "preference" that
the head of state and of the party should be one and the same person.

The ANC, which has governed the country since the fall of apartheid in
1994, would elect a new leader in December at its congress, with its
deputy president Jacob Zuma believed to be eyeing the job -- and that of
head of state.

Mbeki has not excluded the possibility of contesting the party
leadership position which he has held for two consecutive terms.

The ANC ended its four-day policy conference on Saturday in Midrand,
near Johannesburg. Its proposals were to be put to the party's national
congress in December for final approval.