FACTBOX: Facts on South Africa's Motlanthe

(Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress will name party deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe as the country's caretaker president on Monday following the resignation of Thabo Mbeki, party sources said.

Motlanthe will fill the country's top post until parliamentary elections due around April next year. Here are a few facts about Motlanthe.

- Appointed to cabinet in July this year, Motlanthe risked his political reputation by publicly defending Jacob Zuma in the face of corruption allegations after he was sacked by Mbeki as the country's deputy president in 2005.

- He is understood to be favored by Zuma to become his deputy should Zuma become president. Motlanthe was elected ANC deputy president in December 2007.

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

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

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

- 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, Motlanthe was elected secretary-general of the ANC.

(Sources include whoswhosa.co.za)