FACTBOX: Facts on South Africa's Motlanthe

(Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress will ask President Thabo Mbeki to bring deputy party leader Kgalema Motlanthe into the government to ease the transition to a new president.

Analysts said he could become a candidate for president himself if ANC leader Jacob Zuma is convicted in a corruption trial. Here are a few facts about Motlanthe.

- He is a former student activist, a trade unionist, and a former soldier in the ANC's disbanded military wing UmKhonto we Sizwe.

- He was jailed on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela under the racist apartheid regime.

- An intellectual, Motlanthe has never sought the limelight. His exact date of birth is unknown but he is believed to be about 58.

- Motlanthe risked his political reputation by publicly defending Zuma in the face of allegations of corruption after he was sacked by Mbeki as the country's deputy president.

- He is understood to be favored by Zuma to become his deputy should Zuma become president.

- If Zuma's campaign fails, his supporters are said to be prepared to throw in their lot with Motlanthe, elected ANC deputy president in December 2007.

- Motlanthe was detained in 1976 for 11 months for pursuing the aims of the ANC liberation movement. In 1977 he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

- In 1992 he was elected Secretary-General of the National Union of Mineworkers, bedrock of the trade union federation

COSATU.

- In 1997, when politician-businessman Cyril Ramaphosa retired from politics, Kgalema was elected secretary-general of the ANC.

(Sources include whoswhosa.co.za)