Cyril Ramaphosa, former anti-apartheid activist, emerged President of South Africa on Thursday through parliamentary votes after the resignation of former President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa, 65, became interim leader of government after Zuma’s late-night resignation on Wednesday, and was announced by South Africa’s chief justice in Cape Town, who presided over the vote, as substantial president of the country.
Ramaphosa was elected unopposed by the ruling African National Congress stood unopposed.
In a short speech, the former deputy president reached out to opposition parties, telling parliamentarians that “South Africa must come first in everything we do” and pledging to fight corruption.
“This is not yet uhuru (freedom). We have never said it is uhuru. We are going to seek to improve the lives of our people on an ongoing basis, and since 1994, we have done precisely that,” Ramaphosa said.
The ANC has a substantial majority in parliament and the vote was effectively a formality. Although deeply divided, the party has already closed ranks after the crisis of recent days and rallied around Ramaphosa.
Party officials who nominated him described the president as “a revolutionary cadre who has served the people of South Africa all his life and will strength the unity of our country”.
Patrick Maesela, an ANC MP, said: “Africa and the world are pinning their hopes on your revolutionary leadership.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical leftwing opposition party, walked out of parliament, saying the assembly was illegitimate and new elections were necessary.
Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, offered congratulations and said his party would “cooperate” if the president “acts in the interests of the people of South Africa”. Maimane said the country did not have a “Jacob Zuma problem but … an ANC problem”.
Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid activist turned successful businessman, is the standard bearer for the moderate, reformist faction of the ANC. Zuma, 75, represented the party’s more populist, nationalist elements, analysts have said.
The latter’s resignation put an end to the recent political conflicts that threatened to inflict significant damage on the ANC, which has ruled South Africa since the country’s first free elections in 1994.
Zuma in a broadcast on Wednesday, said he was a disciplined member of the ANC, to which he had dedicated his life.
“I fear no motion of no confidence or impeachment,” he said. “I will continue to serve the people of South Africa and the ANC. I will dedicate my life to continuing to work for the execution of the policies of our organisation.
“The ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect.”