South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress has elected its new leader in the person of Cyril Ramaphosa after a bitterly fought battle for who will succeed President Jacob Zuma at the helm of the ANC. He now faces challenging tasks at hand such as fighting corruption, rebuilding the economy after years of mismanagement, cronyism and the appointment of incompetent officials to head key government positions.

With an unemployment rate which stands at 28%, the incoming head of the ANC has pledged to reignite growth by creating some 1 million jobs within the next five years, restore investor confidence and will be the party’s standard-bearer for the 2019 presidential elections. Should President Zuma make an early exit before his tenure runs out, the Vice President and newly elected leader of the ruling party could take over the affair of running the country.

The race for the reigns of Africa’s oldest political party was between Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma, a former South African minister of health and ex-wife of the current president and Cyril Ramaphosa, who serves as Deputy President and businessman. Mr Ramaphosa defeated lone contender by 2440 votes against 2261 as announced by a spokesperson for the ANC.

Benson Neba

BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst.