The speculation stems from Political analysts like Dr. Frans Cronje, who recently tied the South African billionaire’s retirement from his role at his investment firm to a political play.
According to Dr. Cronje, Motsepe’s retirement can be deduced as a strategic move to open the way for the billionaire to run for President of the African National Congress (ANC), a political party known for its opposition to apartheid.
This deduction, however, is far from reality as Motsepe himself has expressed no known intention of running for the position.
As seen on Newsday, another Political analyst, Prince Mashele, recently disclosed that the party, which has been on a rapid decline, is printing T-shirts to support a bid to make billionaire Patrice Motsepe its next president.
“I have pictures of T-shirts the ANC is printing on which it is written, Savumelana, which means ‘we have agreed’, with PM, which stands for Patrice Motsepe,” he said.
“The printing machines are busy printing Patrice Motsepe’s T-shirts. This means that Motsepe wants to be president.”
Should the speculations hold water, Mashele believes that the ANC would be the wrong political vehicle for the billionaire.
“Motsepe is picking a dead horse. It is not running anywhere. He is going to destroy himself if he gets into the ANC,” he said.
As seen on Bloomberg, a campaign for Patrice Motsepe is being launched by certain ANC members.
These members are invested in the idea of replicating Singapore’s economic success in South Africa, as they believe Motsepe would bolster industrialization and curb the employment crises currently plaguing the Southern African nation.
What a win for Patrice Motsepe could mean
If Patrice Motsepe is indeed looking to become the ANC president, and he wins, he would be the first party president in South Africa’s democratic era to not have served time in prison (like Nelson Mandela), been banished (like presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma), or been a key figure in domestic anti-apartheid organizations (like current President Cyril Ramaphosa).
He would also bring his leadership expertise from the football world, having served as president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since March 12, 2021.
Perhaps more than this would be Patrice Motsepe bringing a private sector and legal mindset to governance.
Born in Soweto, South Africa, in 1962, Patrice Motsepe studied and practiced law before becoming the first black partner in the Johannesburg legal firm Bowman Gilfillan in the early 1990s.
His legal experience and understanding of mining law prepared him to enter the mining business at a watershed period in South African history, when apartheid was being phased out, and new economic policies were implemented.
Motsepe created Future Mining, a mining services company, in 1994, and used creative management practices to turn typically unproductive pits into successful operations.
By 1997, he launched ARMgold, which later became African Rainbow Minerals (ARM). After combining with larger companies and purchasing new properties, ARM grew into a diversified mining giant with interests in gold, platinum, iron, coal, copper, and other metals.
