The chief parliamentary whip of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress threw his support behind Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as the party’s next leader and said the ANC is in danger of losing national power in two years. While the ANC has told its members not to publicly discuss the race to succeed President Jacob Zuma as party leader, Jackson Mthembu said Ramaphosa’s position as deputy means he must become its next president. Ramaphosa’s main rival for the job is Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former cabinet minister and the president’s ex-wife who just ended her term as chairwoman of the African Union Commission. As chief whip, Mthembu leads the ANC’s 249-member caucus in the 400-seat parliament. "The ANC created the position of deputy president precisely so that you have a person who is ready to take over should anything happen to the president,’’ Mthembu, 58, said in an interview in his parliamentary office in Cape Town. "As an ANC member, I put such a person to be deput...
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