Top S. African Official Quits for Business Post
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — An outside contender to succeed President Nelson Mandela announced Saturday that he plans to leave Parliament for a high-powered business post.
Cyril Ramaphosa, a former union leader and brilliant tactician against the apartheid regime, will remain African National Congress secretary-general.
But his departure from parliamentary politics appeared to lessen chances that Ramaphosa will challenge Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, the anointed front-runner, to succeed Mandela when the president’s term ends in 1999.
The resignation takes effect once a committee Ramaphosa heads finishes drafting a new constitution.
Ramaphosa, 43, will take a senior post in New Africa Investments Ltd., a black-owned conglomerate fast emerging as a major player in a business scene long dominated by whites. The shift of such a key political figure to business marks the biggest move yet in black economic empowerment in Mandela’s new South Africa.
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