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Johannesburg: South Africa's finance minister said he expected more officials to resign in the aftermath of President Thabo Mbeki's removal, but played down speculation the ruling ANC could split.
Mbeki quit last week after a judge suggested he had meddled in the corruption trial against his rival Jacob Zuma, the leader of the African National Congress.
The resignation on Monday of the pro-Mbeki premier of Gauteng province, South Africa's business and industrial hub, has added to speculation that the monolithic party could break apart before elections expected around April.
"I think probably over the next two weeks or so there would be a few resignations like this," Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, told the BBC's Hard Talk programme, during which he was asked whether the ANC was going to split.
"There is likely to be some steadying of the ship over the next period and as that happens individuals will choose to depart," said Manuel, credited with steering South Africa to a decade of economic growth, in the programme broadcast yesterday.
Despite the resignations of Mbeki loyalists from official positions, there have so far been no major defections from the ANC itself, which has ruled since the end of white minority rule in 1994.
Historic mission
The ANC denied reports of a party split.
"The ANC takes notes of the reports in the media on the imminent formation of a new party. These reports have no face to them and are denied by people reported to be spearheading such a formation," SAPA news agency quoted ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte as saying. "The ANC will not be distracted from its historic mission and... its immediate task as the leading party in government."
Manuel formally resigned last week but immediately accepted to serve new President Kgalema Motlanthe. Manuel reiterated that the government would keep to pro-business policies despite pressure from leftist allies of Zuma.
Zuma is expected to win the presidential election next year, but prosecutors yesterday filed an application to appeal against the court ruling that threw out the corruption case against the ANC leader on technical grounds. Manuel said the government's economic direction would not change under either Motlanthe or Zuma.
"I think we need to signal that politics will continue, that you will have policy continuity even if individuals change," Manuel said.
But despite the reassurances from top ANC brass, investors are uneasy about the country's direction under a Zuma presidency in light of the ANC leader's strong support from trade unions and the small but influential Communist Party.
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