Appearing before the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa had the air of a man deeply tired of all the criticism.

Does President Cyril Ramaphosa actually want to be president any more? Would he be excited to win another term in office, if the ANC holds on to power after the 2024 general elections?

This question was put to Ramaphosa during an engagement with the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday - and it's not a trivial one.

At 71, Ramaphosa is some years younger than the likes of Joe Biden and Donald Trump - both of whose fitness to hold office on the grounds of advanced age has recently been questioned.

But though Ramaphosa may be in sharper mental health than either of his American political counterparts, does he retain any real appetite for the job of South Africa's head of state?

He didn't answer the question directly. Instead, Ramaphosa paid tribute to the "new and novel way" in which the ANC is vetting candidates for public office, specifying that he had recently been before a 10-person interview panel which grilled him for two hours on, among other things, his personal financial situation.

"I was rather pleased with that because it showed the renewal process in my party," Ramaphosa mused.

If the ANC holds on to its majority, Ramaphosa heads...