President Cyril Ramaphosa will once again lead the African National Congress (ANC) for the next five years. This comes after he was re-elected president of the ruling party, beating the former Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize at the party’s 55th National Conference at Nasrec, Johannesburg.
Ramaphosa received a total of 2 476 votes against Mkhize’s 1 879.
But who is Cyril Ramaphosa?
Returning to the ANC presidency, Ramaphosa will now lead the ANC for another five-year term. Voting for the ANC’s Top Seven took place at the ANC’s 55th National Conference at NASREC in Johannesburg.
Ramaphosa’s political credentials go back a long way in the ruling party. Before assuming the top seat in the ANC, Ramaphosa had served on the National Executive Committee for 26 years.
After the unbanning of the ANC, he was elected as the party’s Secretary-General during the Presidency of Nelson Mandela in 1991. In his term as Secretary-General, Ramaphosa also served as a Chief Negotiator during the CODESA talks.
Post the democratic election in 1994, he was elected as Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, responsible for drafting the new Supreme Law of the country.
After being away from politics from 2014 to 2018, he was appointed deputy president of one of the oldest liberation movements on the African continent.
He then went on to become president of the ANC and the fifth President of a democratic South Africa in 2018.
Ramaphosa inherited a party that was afflicted by internal division and a corrupt government which gave birth to state capture. He undertook to root out corruption in government and renew his political home.
Returning from the business sector, Ramaphosa would find politics a different anima. In his first term as President, a global pandemic hit, changing the way the world operated.
Unemployment and the cost of living increased under his watch, and on top of that, the Phala Phala farm saga erupted.
CR17 campaign
In 2018, Ramaphosa took over from his predecessor, when former President Jacob Zuma resigned. And, under the banner of his CR17 campaign, he was officially elected party president at the ANC’s Nasrec national conference.
However, his campaign sparked its own controversy, with political opponents demanding that the campaign’s funders be revealed.
Later, the president would deal with the new dark cloud hanging over his head – the Phala-Phala farm gate.
Following his re-election as President, he will have the opportunity to shape the ANC for the next five years. Many believe he will now advance his role as both the party’s and the country’s president.
The ANC is set to hold its birthday celebrations known as the January 8th Statement next year in the Free State.
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