President Thabo Mbeki says he will consider staying on as African National Congress (ANC) leader after 2007, potentially pitting himself against Jacob Zuma in the race for the party’s presidency.

Mbeki said yesterday he might think about again running for ANC president when the party holds its national conference in 2007, where the party will choose new leaders.

This is the first time Mbeki has publicly made known his willingness to serve a third term as ANC president.

His comments came at the end of a tumultuous national general council (NGC) meeting in Pretoria at which delegates gave Zuma a new lease of political life.

The party’s constitution places no limit on the number of terms its president may serve, in contrast to the South African constitution.

But the only people who have so far spoken about the possibility of Mbeki staying on as ANC leader have been Mbeki supporters such as KwaZulu-Natal premier S’bu Ndebele.

However, Mbeki insisted last night that he would step down as SA’s president when his term ends in 2009.

Speaking during an interview with the SABC after the end of the NGC, Mbeki said: “We don’t want the professionalisation of power ... where I’m president for 50 years — that’s out of order.”

He said his decision to stay on as ANC president in 2007 would depend on the “comfort levels” of ANC members and his availability for the job at the time.

If Mbeki decided to run for ANC president in 2007 and assuming that Zuma was acquitted in his corruption trial, the two men would likely find themselves up against each other for the post.

Zuma is bidding for the post and his backers in the ANC Youth League and the ANC’s trade union and communist allies have tended to regard Zuma as automatic frontrunner to succeed Mbeki as both ANC and South African president. However, this would change if Zuma were running against Mbeki for the top party post. There is no guarantee that a Zuma challenge against Mbeki would succeed.

In the event that Mbeki remained ANC president and Zuma became heir-apparent after 2007 as head of state, this could result in two centres of political power in the land, something that has caused the ANC headaches in the past, especially in the provinces.

As ANC president, Mbeki would be in a stronger position to influence the choice of his successor and his presence in the party would make a Zuma presidential bid difficult.

Asked if he had a view on the party succession issue, Mbeki said: “I do have a very firm view. The ANC should not deal with this matter ahead of 2007. It’s completely unnecessary. It would be exceedingly unwise and I would most certainly discourage it very firmly.”

Asked whether he should be grooming a successor, Mbeki said the ANC had never “groomed” anyone for the presidency.

“I don’t think we should groom anybody. When the time comes, people will say ‘we trust this one to succeed’,” he said.

“We don’t want to divert the ANC from its normal business, two-and-a-half years away from national conference.”

Mbeki’s comments came after delegates to the council meeting rejected Zuma’s “request” to be relieved of party duties pending the outcome of his trial.

The party’s national working committee had asked delegates to endorse the request.

Mbeki also dismissed suggestions the ANC’s alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) would break up. “It isn’t going to fall apart. I do not see circumstances in which it could … I’m quite certain that workers would say the one party that can address their challenges is the ANC.”

He said, however, that tension would remain a feature of the alliance. “The ANC, as a ruling party, may very well sympathise with worker concerns, but what about the rest of society? We all have different tasks and different mandates. It’s not the responsibility of Cosatu to find out what business is saying.”

Cosatu and the SACP are firm backers of Zuma and believe a Zuma presidency would be better disposed towards their concerns.

Meanwhile, Cosatu and the SACP appear to have succeeded in pushing debate over a dual labour market off the party’s agenda at the NGC. The party resolved to refer the matter to its branches.

However, Mbeki said government had the right to consider economic reforms and defended the role senior government officials played in policy making, saying they had better access to information.

With acknowledgements to Karima Brown, Jacob Dlamini, Vukani Mde, Hopewell Radebe and the Business Day.