Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s deputy president, has been elected the new president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, bringing president Jacob Zuma’s troubled leadership of Africa’s storied liberation movement to an end.
Thousands of enthusiastic delegates dressed in the party’s trademark yellow and green colors burst into thunderous applause and dance as the election results were announced at a conference center on the outskirts of Johannesburg, where the ANC met for the first time in 1990 after the ban was lifted on the organisation.
The move puts Mr Ramaphosa, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and one of South Africa’s wealthiest citizens, in position to become the next president of the country, as the ANC still holds a voting majority.
The vote also puts to bed a bitter election battle with fellow challenger Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is 68 and the mother of four of Mr Zuma’s children. Critics saw her bid for presidency as potentially damaging to the party given her close proximity to Mr Zuma and the corruption scandals that have dogged his most recent years in power.
Mr Zuma’s term as head of state will be up in 2019 when national elections are scheduled to be held. David Mabuza, premier of Mpumalanga province, was chosen as Mr Ramaphosa’s deputy president of the party.
Mr Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old lawyer and businessman, inherits one of the world’s greatest liberation movements, but one whose reputation has been battered by corruption scandals and failures to deliver on the promises of a free South Africa.
Hopes are running high that Mr Ramaphosa is up to the task. During the run-up to the vote, he promised to reform the ruling party and has called the corruption allegations that make daily headlines in the country “the enemy of the people”.
“The overall sentiment across a large body of ordinary south Africans will certainly be uplifted as a result of his victory,” says Daniel Silke, an independent political analyst. “There will be a sense of relief of many South Africans.”
Mr Ramaphosa’s candidacy has been favored by investors who see him as the best bet for getting the nation’s sluggish economy and unpredictable policy environment back on track.
“There is going to be a renewed confidence immediately,” said William Gumede, executive chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation. “The country is in paralysis. Business is not investing because they are uncertain. There’s paralysis in the state also.”
In an early sign of the direction the race was heading, senior ANC leaders made the unusual move of offering the deputy president their support in the early hours of Monday on social media.
“Am casting my vote for comrade Ramaphosa for ANC President,” National Spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said on Twitter early Monday. “Whatever happens I trust he will restore confidence and inspire hope.”
For the last three days, more than 4,700 party delegates from around the country have been hunkered down to prepare for the historic decision to elect the next leader of Nelson Mandela’s bruised liberation struggle.
Delegates waited for nearly two hours in a large conference hall awaiting the results, with Mr Zuma taking the podium to sing a few tunes to pass the time, much to the crowd’s delight.
Finally, a spokesperson for the election agency that conducted the vote announced Mr Ramaphosa had beat Mrs Dlamini-Zuma, former African Union commission chair, for the party’s top job by 179 votes. “We declare Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa as the new president of the African National Congress,” she said.
The 105-year-old party’s reputation has suffered in recent years as a series of high-profile scandals and corruption allegations has hit Mr Zuma and his allies. In 2016, the party had its worst-ever showing in local elections, dipping below 60% for the first time in the party’s history.
Party leaders, including Mr Zuma, have acknowledged those serious challenges during the gathering this week, particularly the factionalism that has deepened divisions within the party in recent months.
In his last speech as party president on Saturday, Mr Zuma urged ANC members to accept the choice that the party would make this week. “No matter how strong you felt about the candidate, once the branches of the ANC have made their choice, you have to respect that and agree to be led.”
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