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South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa

JOHANNESBURG. – South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa saw his chances of becoming the country’s next leader increase yesterday when the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), a powerful union group backed him to succeed President Jacob Zuma as head of the ruling party.

President Zuma is expected to stand down as African National Congress president at a party conference in December next year, ahead of national elections in 2019 when his tenure as the country’s president will end.

The debate over who should follow Zuma has heated up since the ANC suffered its worst local election results in August, exposing party divisions.

The ANC’s dominance of South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994 means it is widely expected to win the 2019 election, making its next leader almost certain to become president.

No one has declared an ambition to run but informal positioning is well under way, with the ANC split between backers of Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid leader popular with investors, and those who feel he would be too pro-business.

Cosatu, a member of the ruling political alliance that claims to represent 1.8 million workers, told reporters it had “resolved to campaign” for Ramaphosa ahead of the party conference. An articulate though often programmatic speaker, Ramaphosa is likely to face strong competition if he does compete, including from Zuma’s ex-wife, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, head of the African Union.

In another development, the ANC on Wednesday called on Parliament to accelerate the implementation of the resolution for the establishment of a Media Appeal Tribunal.

The current Press Ombudsman is not adequate to sufficiently protect the rights of the individual citizens, community and society as a whole, the ANC said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

“Under the guise of freedom of speech, our media tramples on the constitutional rights of others and in itself begins to constitute the real threat to media freedom, diversity and democracy,” ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said.

This followed the suspension of Steve Motale, editor of The Citizen newspaper. Motale has been one of the few black voices in the industry who upheld the principles of diversity and impartiality.

Motale was suspended after a damning investigation into former finance minister Trevor Manuel, current finance minister Pravin Gordhan and ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu was published in the paper a few weeks ago. It appears that Motale has been accused of having a personal vendetta against Manuel, who is white, and of running a campaign against him. – Reuters/Xinhua/HR.