Baleka Mbete

Also entering Zuma's considerations as potential presidential candidates who may protect him and his legacy once in power are the current ANC Chairwoman and Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete and Free State Premier and provincial ANC Chairman Elias 'Ace' Magashule a member of the powerful 'Premier League' of Zuma-supporting ANC provincial premiers...

In procedural terms Molefe's elevation to Parliament should have been preceded by a letter to the Speaker Baleka Mbete from the ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe...

Then Speaker Baleka Mbete called in the parliamentary security team known as the 'White Shirts' to eject Malema and his fellow militants amid cheers from the ANC benches...

Although Mantashe didn't name them we understand from other ANC sources that the contenders break down as follows: • Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Chairperson of the African Union Commission: due to return home in January to run for the ANC presidency; • Baleka Mbete Speaker of Parliament: unambiguously pro-Zuma; • Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President: the successor favoured by the ruling hierarchy; backed by business and trying to broaden his appeal to grassroots; • Zweli Mkhize ANC Treasurer General: former Premier of KwaZulu-Natal province with the highest ANC membership; • Kgalema Motlanthe former interim President of the ANC and the country: lost to Zuma in a bid for the party presidency in 2012 and has become an outspoken critic of his rule; and • Lindiwe Sisulu Minister for Human Settlements: former Chief of Staff in Zuma's Presidency...

Last week the ANC gave four key signals about Zuma's position: • It conceded that the decision by the ANC caucus to protect Zuma had been wrong: that came after the Constitutional Court had found that he had breached the constitution over the funding of his private homestead Nkandla; • It congratulated Madonsela on her term of office and said she had 'saved the ANC from itself'; • ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu said he would accompany Gordhan to face criminal charges (widely seen as trumped up by Zuma's allies in the National Prosecuting Authority) in court on 2 November; • It reversed a decision by the pro-Zuma Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete to return Madonsela's report...

Meanwhile the Parliamentary Speaker and ANC Chairperson Baleka Mbete a former Deputy President under Kgalema Motlanthe is being suggested as another leading female candidate...

He has his eye on the party chairmanship next year a position currently occupied by Baleka Mbete...

Earlier the Speaker Baleka Mbete had written to all parties pleading with the opposition to put aside their differences and fill the important post...

These are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa Secretary General Gwede Mantashe Treasurer General Zweli Mkhize Chairperson Baleka Mbete and Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte...

So far he has pushed both his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma the head of the African Union Commission and Baleka Mbete the ANC Chairperson to protect him from prosecution after he leaves office (AC Vol 56 No 23 Dlamini-Zuma bandwagon speeds up)...