Cyril Ramaphosa in line for South Africa’s presidency after narrowly winning leadership of ruling ANC party
As ANC leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old union leader who became a businessman and is now one of South Africa’s richest people, is likely to become the country’s next president after elections in 2019
History awaits Cyril Ramaphosa. On Monday, delegates from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party elected him as their new president, paving the way for Ramaphosa to become the country’s next leader.
Ramaphosa, 65, was active in the revolutionary struggle against apartheid that set his country on the path of democracy and greater racial equality – and brought the ANC into power it hasn’t lost since Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first free elections in 1994.
In the decades since then, Ramaphosa and the ANC’s paths diverged.
Meanwhile, the promise of a more equal South Africa has foundered. The ANC has failed to deliver dependable public services, and the employment growth rate is slow even by Sub-Saharan Africa’s standards.
Jacob Zuma, whom Ramaphosa will replace, has been accused of egregious corruption and relying politically on an economy-stifling system of patronage to curry votes.
Wealth is still concentrated in the hands of a small white minority and a class of black business elites.