The new ANC leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, was a protégé of Nelson Mandela, who had pushed unsuccessfully to name him as his successor in the late 1990s. Ramaphosa’s victory amounts to a victory for reformers in the ANC, which wants to root out corruption and woo back foreign investors. As expectations of a Ramaphosa victory heightened, South Africa’s currency, the rand, gained sharply — reflecting the business community’s preference for him. A Ramaphosa victory, experts and allies have said, will strengthen the ANC before the elections in 2019. Using his ties to the party, Ramaphosa quickly became one of the richest businessmen in the country and on the continent.

Source: thestar December 19, 2017 00:22 UTC