June 19, (THEWILL)- Leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa, on Wednesday, took his oath as the nation’s President, marking the beginning of a second term of five years in office.
Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, was among several world leaders who witnessed the swearing-in ceremony at Pretoria, the administrative capital of the Rainbow nation.
Taking his oath on Wednesday, Ramaphosa hailed his broad coalition government as the “beginning of a new era”.
The 71-year-old was re-elected as South African President by the National Assembly on June 14 with 283 votes against Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters, who received 44 votes, after elections in May that produced no outright winner, forcing the ANC to strike deals with five other parties, including the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), to form a government of national unity.
In the general elections on May 29, the ANC secured 159 out of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
This is the first time the ANC has fallen below the 50 per cent needed to maintain its 30-year-old outright majority in the lower house of parliament.
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