No decision on Motlanthe for SA deputy president

ANC leadership at the Lekgotla in Midrand

It has not been decided whether ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe will become South Africa's deputy president, the party's secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said today.

At a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki this weekend, ANC leadership moved to have him appoint Motlanthe as a second deputy president of the country, the Sunday Times reported.

"The speculation about the deputy president is a speculation," Mantashe said at the close of the ANC National Executive Committee's three-day lekgotla in Midrand.

ANC policy is that the president and deputy president of the party serve the country in those capacities.

However, there will be two centres of power - the government and the ANC -- until the next general elections in 2009 following the election in December of Jacob Zuma as ANC president and Motlanthe as his deputy.

"One of the things I resist is to report on discussions. I report on decisions," Mantashe told the media at the lekgotla.

"It was not a preoccupation [that Motlanthe be made deputy president of SA] at the lekgotla - there was no decision taken on this matter."

Urgent resolution
Mantashe said the NEC confirmed as an "urgent resolution" that those members of the National Prosecuting Authority's Directorate of Special Operations - known as the Scorpions - performing police functions be absorbed into the South African Police Service by June 2008.

He emphasised that charges against Zuma had not informed the decision. Mantashe said the electricity crisis was also debated in depth at the lekgotla and that the ANC would look into a number of interventions.

He said South Africans should concern themselves with trying to consume energy efficiently rather than an electricity crisis.

Mantashe announced that diplomat Jesse Duarte would be appointed as the ANC's new spokesperson, replacing Smuts Ngonyama in the role. - Sapa