Cyril Ramaphosa, the African National Congress’s recently elected leader, has become South Africa’s new president following Jacob Zuma’s resignation from the position on Wednesday. There was applause and singing from the ANC benches after Mr Ramaphosa, who has served as Mr Zuma’s deputy since 2014, accepted the presidential nomination from chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters walked out of parliament ahead of the ceremony to appoint Mr Ramaphosa. “We don’t have a Jacob Zuma problem; we have an ANC problem,” he said. At one stage the exit negotiations threatened to come to nothing, but in the end Mr Zuma was forced to leave office.

Source: The Irish Times February 15, 2018 10:52 UTC