We haven’t anointed Cyril prime minister – Mantashe

Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: Leon Sadiki/City Press

The ANC moved this morning to put speculation about Kgalema Motlanthe’s future to rest.

In a press briefing on the sideslines of the ANC’s Mangaung elective conference, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said newspapers should stop saying the ANC will put businessman Cyril Ramaphosa in a leadership position.

“We’ve not anointed Cyril Ramaphosa as prime minister,” Mantashe told reporters.

Ramaphosa recently got elected to ANC deputy president by the party’s 4 500 delegates.

Spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said speculation about Kgalema Motlanthe resigning as deputy president of South Africa was also misplaced.

“He just laughed and said: ‘Where do these people get this from’,” Mthembu said Motlanthe responded when he asked the deputy president about the rumours.

Motlanthe declined nomination for the party’s national executive committee, but is was unclear what he would do next in the ANC.

It has also been speculated that Ramaphosa may join government, but Mantashe poured cold water on the idea.

“There is no rule in the ANC that says if you are deputy president of the ANC you must be deputy president of the country.”