Cyril Ramaphosa sworn in as new President of South Africa; vows anti-corruption drive

NewsBharati    16-Feb-2018
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Johannesburg, February 16: Within 24 hours of former President Jacob Zuma’s resignation, Cyril Ramaphosa head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), has been sworn in as South Africa's president. He was elected unopposed in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.

“Issues to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with ‘state capture’ are issues that are on our radar screen,” he said after swearing in which is an indirect reference to the long run corruption under Zuma government which brought the former president down.

In his short speech, he urged parliamentarians and oppositions to put South Africa first whatever they do. “This is not yet uhuru (freedom). We have never said it is uhuru. We are going to seek to improve the lives of our people on an ongoing basis, and since 1994, we have done precisely that,” Ramaphosa said.

The former president’s nine-year-long rule came to an end on Wednesday. Though he was reluctant to come down a possibility of the no-confidence vote almost pushed him to resign. After his resignation, Ramaphosa was automatically elected. As ANC has a majority in parliament, the vote was to serve a constitutional purpose only. South Africa's two main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), refused to vote for Ramaphosa. However a large part welcomed the new President happily with a hope for change.

Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa President Jacob Zuma