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Mogoeng Mogoeng will reportedly contest the 2024 elections, leaving SA split.
The former chief justice has made headlines for several controversial remarks over the years and will, according to Sunday Tribune, make a push for the presidency.
He was reportedly selected as a presidential candidate by the All African Alliance Movement, which launched earlier this year.
The movement’s secretary-general, Bishop Mishark Tebe, told the paper South Africans want a leader “of high calibre”.
“We consulted extensively first to see what people on the ground wanted. People wanted a movement they can be proud of. In other words, how can we do things that will take us back to 1994? We will remember that during the 1994 elections, everyone was excited and ready to vote. That is what people are looking for and also a leader of high calibre,” he said.
Mogoeng was previously called on by the Independent Citizens Movement to run for office after a video of him seemingly suggesting if God wants him to lead the country he will make himself available.
“You must ask God to make it clear to you who he has chosen. Remember I said there [are] about seven or more people who say the Lord has called them to lead this nation, so to get certainty, so it doesn’t look like anybody is trying to take anything from anybody, let there be clarity.
“All I can say is I am ready to do whatever the Lord wants me to do,” Mogoeng said.
Speaking at the Word of Faith Christian Centre in Gqeberha last year, he said corrupt individuals will soon be exposed.
“Some people look very clean from afar and talk a lot about corruption when in fact they are masters of corruption themselves.
“The Lord knows them all. He knows their tricks. He says He will expose them all. Criminals will be punished,” he said.
He also seemed to have a plan to spark SA’s economic growth.
“There are treasures that are hidden until the right time, and as He [God] grows our currency and our economy, those treasures will be used to pay off the debts we have as a nation,” he said.
South Africans flooded social media with reaction to Mogoeng’s reported presidential bid, with some backing it and others claiming it will come to nothing.