Who is Kgalema Motlanthe?

South Africa's next president-in-waiting?

Kgalema Motlanthe is a prominent South African political personality and is currently the Deputy President of the African National Congress.

Motlanthe has been the only ANC leader who has risked his political reputation by publicly defending sacked Deputy President Jacob Zuma in the face of widespread allegations of corruption against Zuma.

Motlanthe is a former trade unionist who has support across the ANC-led tripartite alliance. Many in the ANC describe him as an independent thinker who is not afraid to speak his mind.

There is growing support for the idea that deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe must be sent to parliament immediately to take over as caretaker president while Zuma deals with the Mbeki-instigated NPA court case of humiliation.

Motlanthe who was born in 1949, grew up influenced by the revolutionary ideologies of the Black Consciousness Movement which was led by Steven Bantu Biko. He was detained by Apartheid Government in 1977 the year after the infamous 1976 Soweto student uprising at the age of 28. In 1976 he was detained for 11 months for pursuing the aims of the liberation movement African National Congress. He was later sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on Robben Island. Shortly after his release he was elected Secretary-General of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). In 1997 when politician-businessman Cyril Ramaphosa retired from politics, Kgalema was elected Secretary-General of the ANC.