Ramaphosa re-elected as South African President for second term

• Ramaphosa re-election is a fruit of political dealings, horse-tradings and collaboration by the leading African National Congress with other parties.

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been re-elected for his second term.

Ramaphosa re-election is a fruit of political dealings, horse-tradings and collaboration by the leading African National Congress with other parties.

This is the first time the party would rely on the support and consensus from other parties to produce a president since 1994 when the country gained its independence from the Dutch and apartheid gave way to democracy in the country.

Ramaphosa was re-elected late on Friday by lawmakers for a second term, hours after his ANC and the Democratic Alliance agreed to form what has suddenly become popular in South Africa as the Unity Government, making it the first time the otherwise hugely divided parties and ideological rivals would work together.

Ramaphosa won the vote against the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema, gathering 283 votes against Malema’s 44.

The atmosphere and process leading to the return of Ramaphosa, which peaked on Friday when the South African Parliament endorsed him, was fraught with tension and uncertainty has thus been an unusual one for the ANC.

The situation was engendered by the ANC realisation that it has lost its majority status in the parliament after last month’s election and didn’t have the numbers to unilaterally produce a president, as it had done since the return the country gained independence 30 years, and it needed to reach out to opposition parties to form a government.

This effort yielded fruit only on Friday, June 13, when its biggest rival, the white-led Democratic Alliance, agreed to work on the Government of National Unity with the ANC.

The deal between these otherwise sharply antagonistic parties is seen as a most profound change from when Nelson Mandela rode on the ANC to victory in 1994.

The ANC lost its electoral majority for the first time in the parliamentary election of May 29, 2024, and has since then been engaged in talks with other parties to work with it to return Ramaphosa and to form the multiparty government that has just come to be.

Apart from the DA, at least two smaller parties, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance, are taking part in the Unity Government.

In a speech to members of the parliament, 71-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa said he was humbled to be elected again as president.

He commended the DA and the other parties which collaborated to make his return a reality