Cyril Ramaphosa is the new ANC leader who was appointed this week in South Africa. He could possibly be the next South African president. His party, the ANC (African National Congress) has been the ruling party since the country's first democratic elections in 1994. Ramaphosa was elected president of his party on Monday night, December 18, 2017, with 2,449 votes which were about 200 more than his nearest contender.
Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first democratically-elected president in 1994 had favored Ramaphosa as the future president of the country.
There is great excitement in the country among both white and black people at the appointment of Ramaphosa. The hope he will drive the country forward. Ramaphosa was born in 1952 and has a wealth of business and political experience. He was deputy president of the country since 2014.
Opinion
In a street survey in Cape Town this week most people told me they are happy with the outcome of the ANC election. Most people believe Ramaphosa could make a success of the country. Most of them feel he will succeed in undertaking damage control after the previous corrupt leadership. One person interviewed said President Jacob Zuma is the ultimate scoundrel. "He has neither shame nor a conscience. He also has a habit of blaming other people.
He takes zero responsibility for anything."
Zuma the former president of the ANC was accused of corruption and state capture by foreign businesses. However, Zuma goes down in ANC history as the president of South Africa who unrelentingly opposed white monopoly of capital. Some ANC stalwarts believe Zuma was not solely to be blamed for the country's credit downgrade.
Extremely wealthy
Ramaphosa became extremely wealthy after being the chief negotiator at Codesa (Convention for a Democratic South Africa). He is reported to have almost R7-billion. (The Rand-currency trades at around 13:1 to the US$). Ramaphosa is presently building his third mansion in Cape Town. He has two other mansions in Johannesburg and in Pretoria.
Some accused him of being self-centered, while others believe Ramaphosa is the right man for the job to pull the country out of its weak economic status. South Africa received junk status recently. Tokyo Sexwale an ANC veteran and businessman who also struck it rich at Codesa told the South African media this week the previous president of the country, Jacob Zuma, cannot be held solely to be blamed for excessive corruption. He says the entire ANC top structure must share the blame equally.
