Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to emphasise stability - in government and the ANC. Given his history he is likely to want to stabilise the economy rather than pursue radical interventions.
New ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, centre, with fellow top leaders elected at the party’s 54th national conference.
EPA-EFE/Cornell Tukiri
Cyril Ramaphosa has secured the leadership of South Africa’s governing ANC. But he may not be able to clean up the mess left by Jacob Zuma given the other members of the party’s leadership team.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the new president of South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, and potentially the country’s future president.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
South Africa’s ruling ANC has a new leader - Cyril Ramaphosa. But this doesn’t mean that the country is out of the woods. Political instability remains a real possibility.
South African President Jacob Zuma sings before his opening address at the 54th National Conference of the governing ANC.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Zuma’s last address to South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, as its president, betrayed his strange way of dealing with issues. He came across as delusional and self-indulgent.
Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa. There are renewed calls for citizens to directly elect their president and other representatives.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
Changing the South African system to allow for direct election would require the country to look carefully at how a directly elected president should be held accountable to parliament.
South Africa’s governing African National Congress has begun the process of choosing its leaders.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludrick
The ANC’s elective conference is important for the party and South Africa. This is because the person chosen to lead the governing party since 1994, has gone on to become president.
South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says his emails were hacked.
GCIS
Accusations against South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa appear to be an example of the tried-and-tested trick to discredit him and his political campaign to become the next president.
Supporters of President Jacob Zuma reacting to the vote of no confidence proceedings in parliament.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
Unless parliament passes a motion of no confidence in him, which is not on the cards any time soon, Zuma’s future depends on whether he’s weakened in the African National Congress, not parliament.
South African President Jacob Zuma with Parliament’s Speaker Baleka Mbete.
Flickr
Even if President Zuma wins the no confidence vote, the consequences for the ruling ANC are dire. A loss would see it further divided and weakened ahead of the 2019 elections.
President Jacob Zuma was slammed as being irrational for the recent cabinet reshuffle.
GCIS
Democracy and good governance require politicians to engage in reasoned debate, informed decision making and measured judgements. This presupposes rationality. Is this always true?
To honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa could do with its citizens becoming more active in driving development - particularly efforts to tackle poverty an inequality.
Competing to be the next president of South Africa’s ANC: Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
A combination of politicking ahead of the ANC policy conference, plus the machinations just before it met meant heightened tensions between rival factions.
Protesters expressing their view of President Jacob Zuma’s government ahead of the ANC National Policy Conference.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Policy conferences of South Africa’s governing ANC have been about economic policy matters. But more recently organisational renewal has also dominated, as the party loses support.
Many are questioning South Africa’s constitutional democracy amid high poverty and unemployment.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The possibility that South Africa’s ruling ANC could lose power in 2019 runs like a tragic thread through its policy conference documents. It agrees that its actions have repelled many supporters.
Documents released ahead of the policy conference of South Africa’s embattled governing ANC show it hasn’t the guts or internal balance of forces, for self-correction and renewal.
ANC leaders greet party supporters at a recent rally.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The internal processes of South Africa’s ruling ANC for electing the president is distorted by money, patronage, factionalism and vote-rigging. It negates the democratic legitimacy the party claims.
President Jacob Zuma, left, gets a courtesy visit from President of Namibia Hage Geingob in 2015 in Cape Town.
GCIS
South Africa’s ANC and Namibia’s SWAPO, governing parties, enter crucial leadership elections this year, with presidents Zuma and Geingob both facing challenges.
South African President Jacob Zuma is appealing a High Court ruling that he give reasons for his controversial cabinet reshuffle.
GCIS
President Jacob Zuma’s grounds for appeal are surreal. He invokes the meaning of a rule set by the apartheid context he ferociously fought against, to justify his executive action in a democracy.