President Zuma on the ropes following Ramaphosa's dramatic victory

19 Décembre 2017

Cape Town, South Africa, December 19 (Infosplusgabon) - Following 10 turbulent years with President Jacob Zuma as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), South Africans on Tuesday woke up to the promise of a new dawn.

A decade – to the day – after Zuma swept Thabo Mbeki aside on a giant wave of populism, the scandal-plagued ANC veteran is licking his wounds. This is after his preferred candidate – former African Union chairperson and ex-wife – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was narrowly defeated by tycoon and former trade union leader Cyril Ramaphosa.

After a grueling election campaign to win the party leadership, 2,440 delegates voted for Ramaphosa to lead the country’s governing party for the next five years. Dlamini-Zuma, received 2,261 votes.

There is a growing consensus that President Zuma, who has been significantly weekend by the elective conference, may be recalled at president before his term ends in 2019.

Over the next few weeks, notes political analyst Ferial Hafajee, the ANC will decide which of the party's two centres of power will reign supreme.

"The two centres are (President) Zuma's at the Union Buildings, and the new ANC president's at the party headquarters in Luthuli House. If history is a guide, then Luthuli House will be the centre, with the Union Buildings under (President) Zuma becoming less and less important as the reality of the ANC elective conference sets in," she said.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, who was instrumental in having Mbeki toppled all those years ago, said “I’m happy the Zumas ate a humble pie”.

The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said Ramaphosa victory is "too little too late" for the party.

"The ANC is dead and cannot self-correct, no matter who is at the helm," said DA leader Mmusi Maimane shortly after the result was announced.

Maimane said the future of South Africa lies outside of the ANC and that it was up to the voters to "bring about change by removing the ANC in 2019 and ushering a new beginning for our country".

"Ramaphosa now leads a deeply divided organisation, which has evolved into a self-serving party that has forgotten the poor and the jobless."

Outgoing ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe cautioned against using "white monopoly capital" – a popular phrase coined by Zuma – as a counter argument to state capture.

"Deracialising the economy should be at the heart of the programme of the liberation movement. It should not be reduced into a new phenomenon that constitutes an immediate problem facing our movement,” he said.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/IUY/ GABON 2017

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