South African tycoon Tokyo Sexwale says the ANC presidency is dangerous and he does not want the job

Tokyo Sexwale has made his position clear. The South African mining magnate says he could serve as ANC president when Cyril Ramaphosa's term ends, but he will not be running. The role, he says, is dangerous, and he is not interested in its personal power or its glory.

Speaking in a new interview reported by Daily Investor and BusinessTech on Sunday, Sexwale said he would instead support the ANC's next leader from outside the race, naming Deputy President Paul Mashatile as his preferred candidate to succeed Ramaphosa as both ANC and state president.

The remarks land at a politically charged moment. Sexwale has been at the center of growing speculation about the ANC's 2027 elective conference, the gathering at which the party will choose Ramaphosa's successor. A KwaZulu-Natal lobby group calling itself the Tokyo/Mvela Perspective formally entered his name into the succession debate in late April, producing a written motivation document that argued his combination of liberation struggle credentials, governance experience and business acumen made him the candidate the party needed. The document noted his 13 years on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, his stint as Premier of Gauteng from 1994 to 1999, and his track record building Mvelaphanda Group into one of South Africa's most prominent black-owned mining and resources conglomerates.

Sexwale's response to that lobbying effort, as expressed in Sunday's interview, was to step back rather than step forward. He acknowledged his capability but said capability and willingness were different things. He described the ANC presidency as a role with genuine personal dangers attached and said that awareness shaped his decision. His consistent public backing of Mashatile further clarifies the lane he has chosen: influencer rather than candidate.

He also used Sunday's interview to take a pointed shot at Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala farm scandal, accusing the president of being dishonest about the origin of the US dollars found hidden in sofas at his Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo Province in 2020. Ramaphosa has maintained that the money was proceeds from the sale of game and cattle to a Sudanese businessman named Hazim Mustafa. Sexwale disputed that account, calling it untruthful. The challenge is significant coming from a man within the ANC fold, not from an opposition politician.

The ANC's internal succession contest is simultaneously more crowded and more fraught than it has been at any comparable point in the party's post-1994 history. Mashatile is considered by many analysts the front-runner by virtue of his current position as deputy president of both the party and the country. But Patrice Motsepe, the CAF president and mining billionaire who chairs African Rainbow Minerals, has also been mentioned by ANC structures as a potential candidate. Former ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula remains a figure in the conversation. The KwaZulu-Natal province, historically a kingmaker in ANC leadership elections, has been signaling independently of the other regions.

Sexwale, 73, spent 13 years imprisoned on Robben Island after being convicted of terrorism in 1977 for his role in the ANC's armed struggle. He emerged from prison in 1990 and rose rapidly to become one of the most prominent figures in the post-apartheid political economy, serving as premier of Gauteng, the country's economic engine, before moving into business full-time. Mvelaphanda Group, which he founded, accumulated stakes in some of South Africa's most significant mining assets during the broad-based black economic empowerment era of the early 2000s, making him one of the wealthiest individuals in the country.

He has been a constant presence at the edges of every ANC leadership contest since at least 2007, when he was considered a potential contender before Zuma defeated Mbeki at Polokwane. Each time, he has ultimately stepped back while retaining his influence over the party's internal conversations.

Sunday's interview follows the same pattern, with one difference. This time he is not just declining to run. He is actively backing a specific candidate and publicly challenging the sitting president's account of a scandal that nearly cost Ramaphosa his presidency three years ago. That is a more assertive political stance than Sexwale has typically taken, and it signals that while he may not want the top job, he intends to remain a significant force in determining who gets it.