Cyril Ramaphosa Declared New President of South Africa as Jacob Zuma Resigns
Ramaphosa was elected unopposed in the National Assembly this afternoon. The announcement was welcomed by singing in the National Assembly.
Johannesburg, February 15: Cyril Ramaphosa was today elected unopposed as South Africa's new president, hours after longtime president Jacob Zuma resigned. Ramaphosa was elected unopposed in the National Assembly this afternoon. The announcement was welcomed by singing in the National Assembly.
The 65-year-old leader was elected as the new President of the African National Congress (ANC) two months ago. Zuma, 75, last night stepped down after he was ordered by the ANC's national leadership to quit or face a no confidence emotion in Parliament. The ANC has a large majority in parliament.
Zuma's resignation comes three days after the ANC's national leadership decided at a marathon meeting in the early hours of Monday to ask him to resign, which he had defiantly refused. "I resign as President of the Republic (of South Africa) with immediate effect," Zuma said in a nationally-televised broadcast, ending a nine-year tenure before his second and final term of office which was scheduled to end with national elections in 2019.
But he remained adamant that the decision of the ANC to replace him with Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected in his place as the new President of the ANC two months ago, was "wrong". "I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation, (but) I have always been a disciplined member of the organisation," Zuma said, pledging to continue to serve the political organisation he had joined as a teenager to fight from exile against the minority white apartheid government.