Finance minister out of running for top ANC post

South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has ruled himself out of the running for the post of treasurer-general of the governing African National Congress when it meets to elect new leaders next month.

“It’s a conflict,” he said in an interview in Johannesburg on Thursday. “I can’t be the minister of finance and the TG of the ANC. Those two cannot come together. I prefer to be the minister of finance.”

Africa’s oldest political movement, the ANC has held power since the first multi-racial elections in 1994. President Cyril Ramaphosa is widely expected to seek a second term as party leader at its December 16-20 national conference, and there has been speculation in the local media that Godongwana was a possible contender to succeed Paul Mashatile as its full-time treasurer-general.

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