New president’s vow on corruption
Call for new elections as president is sworn in
SOUTH AFRICA: Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to address the issue of corruption as he was installed as the nation’s new president, following the scandaltainted reign of his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
The veteran of the antiapartheid campaign was formally sworn in by the chief justice yesterday.
CYRIL RAMAPHOSA vowed to address the issue of corruption as he was installed as South Africa’s new president, following the scandal-tainted reign of his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
The veteran of the anti-apartheid campaign was formally sworn in by the chief justice after winning a vote in parliament, despite dissent from some opponents. The crisis provoked by allegations surrounding Mr Zuma took the African National Congress to its weakest point since taking power at the end of apartheid.
“I will try very hard not to disappoint the people of South Africa,” Mr Ramaphosa said in ending his speech to parliament shortly after it elected him. He said the issue of corruption is on “our radar screen”.
Mr Ramaphosa was the only candidate nominated for election after two opposition parties said they would not participate. The two parties instead unsuccessfully called for the dissolution of the National Assembly and early elections. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng presided over the parliamentary election and congratulated Mr Ramaphosa, who had been Mr Zuma’s deputy and in December was narrowly elected leader of the ruling party over Mr Zuma’s ex-wife.
Mr Zuma resigned after years of scandals that damaged the reputation of the ruling ANC, which had instructed him this week to step down or face a parliamentary motion of no confidence that he would almost certainly lose. Mr Zuma denies any wrongdoing.
Mr Ramaphosa is South Africa’s fifth president since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. On Friday evening, he is expected to deliver the state of the nation address that had been postponed during the ruling party’s days of closeddoor negotiations to persuade Mr Zuma to resign.
The country’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, will cooperate with Mr Ramaphosa if he acts in the interests of the South African people, said party leader Mmusi Maimane. “We will hold you accountable and I will see you in 2019 on the ballot box,” Mr Maimane said.
Members of a opposition party walked out of parliament before the election, saying the plan to choose a new president was “illegitimate”.
Mr Ramaphosa is challenged with reviving the reputation of the ANC, Africa’s most prominent liberation movement.
I will try very hard not to disappoint the people of South Africa. New president Cyril Ramaphosa.
IN THE year that South Africa marks the centenary of the late Nelson Mandela’s birth, the unceremonial toppling of the disgraced Jacob Zuma is testament to the resilience of its postapartheid constitution at this turning point in its history. After all, the shamed 75-year-old was brought down by a democratic political process – and a free Press – that have flourished since the momentous end of white rule, and which paved the way for the African National Congress to govern.
It left Mr Zuma with no hiding place from the corruption allegations that have so besmirched his presidency and so distracted his government from confronting the country’s failing economy, and overwhelming poverty, as the hope promised by Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom – and power – ebbed away.
A defining test of Cyril Ramaphosa, sworn in as the fifth post-apartheid leader of the rainbow nation, will be his ability to hold his predecessor to account if the tide of systemic political corruption is to be confronted. With the iconic city of Cape Town expected to run out of water by April because of a drought, coupled with a burgeoning population and insufficient investment in its inadequate infrastructure, the ANC is no longer assured of the electoral support that it has enjoyed since 1994.
Having, belatedly, put an end to the alleged abuses of power undertaken by Mr Zuma and his associates, the ANC now needs to demonstrate, under President Ramaphosa, that it is worthy of the trust of all South Africans – and a world at large which realises the importance of political, and economic, stability in this still troubled country.