"My future is the ANC. The movement is my home and I have nowhere else to go," Sexwale told the Mail & Guardian on Sunday.

The comment came exactly a week after Sexwale's bid to become the African National Congress deputy president failed at the ruling party's elective conference in Mangaung, Free State.

Cyril Ramaphosa trounced Sexwale and Mathews Phosa to become the ruling party's deputy president by garnering 3018 votes to the pair's respective 463 and 470 votes.

President Jacob Zuma was re-elected as ANC president, defeating the country's deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, by 2983 votes to 991.

Both Phosa and Sexwale -- along with every other candidate who ran against nominees aligned to Zuma -- failed to make it onto the 80-member national executive committee (NEC), the ruling party's highest decision-making body.

Sexwale played down his exclusion from the NEC, claiming that he has always been "in and out" of the body.

"Since the days of Oliver Tambo, after I was a prisoner on Robben Island, I served on the NEC," Sexwale said.

"When I took a break [from politics] and went into business I was off the NEC for almost 10 years and returned in 2007. This doesn't mean I am out -- not at all."

Sexwale was referring to his entry into the corporate world after serving as the Gauteng premier from 1994 until 1999.