Mbeki allies seek critical paper

President Mbeki may seek another term as ANC leader next month

Close allies of President Thabo Mbeki have bid for an influential South African media group which includes a newspaper critical of the government.
His personal adviser and a foreign ministry official are in a consortium offering R7bn (£1bn, £500m) to buy Johncom, which owns the Sunday Times.

South Africa's best selling weekly newspaper exposed the health minister's theft conviction and alcohol problems.

Chief foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said suggestions that President

Mbeki or the government were behind this deal was "ludicrous and laughable".

This is a purely private initiative funded commercially," he told Sapa news agency.