Johannesburg,
\nCyril Ramaphosa, the new leader of South Africa\u2019s governing ANC party, said on Thursday he aims to stamp out corruption and pursue a policy of \u201cradical economic transformation\u201d that will speed up expropriation of land without compensation.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old union leader who became a businessman and is now one of South Africa\u2019s richest people is likely to become the country\u2019s next president after elections in 2019, because of his party\u2019s electoral dominance.<\/p>\n
His promise to fight rampant corruption and revitalise the economy has been hailed by foreign investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conference has resolved that corruption must be fought with the same intensity and purpose that we fight poverty, unemployment and inequality,\u201d Ramaphosa said in his maiden speech at the close of a five-day party meeting where he was elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must also act fearlessly against alleged corruption and abuse of office within our ranks,\u201d he said in the early hours of Thursday after a long delay.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa, who is South Africa\u2019s deputy president, was elected the new leader of the African National Congress (ANC) on Monday, succeeding President Jacob Zuma as party head after Zuma\u2019s presidency became tainted with corruption allegations.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa\u2019s narrow victory over former cabinet minister and African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, 68, is seen as a pivotal moment for the ANC, which launched black-majority rule under Nelson Mandela\u2019s leadership 23 years ago but is now deeply divided with its image tarnished.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa paid tribute to Zuma in his speech, saying the ANC would be \u201cunited\u201d despite a fractious campaign. Zuma had backed his ex-wife Dlamini-Zuma for ANC\u2019s top job.<\/p>\n
However, investors are concerned that Ramaphosa may not be able to push through policy changes because the ANC\u2019s top decision-making group, known as the \u201cTop Six\u201d, was split down the middle, with three politicians apiece drawn from Ramaphosa\u2019s camp and that of Dlamini-Zuma.<\/p>\n
Analysts warned that the division of the party presidency, held by Ramaphosa, and the state presidency in Zuma\u2019s hands, could lead to policy uncertainty or paralysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Zuma, for instance, still occupies South Africa\u2019s presidency \u2013 a cohabitation that may cause a period of policy uncertainty,\u201d Capital Economics Africa economist John Ashbourne said in a note.<\/p>\n
Expectations that Ramaphosa would win the ANC race had pushed the rand to 12.5200 per dollar on Monday, its firmest since March 27, when a cabinet reshuffle by Zuma rocked markets and triggered credit ratings downgrades to \u201cjunk.\u201d The rand weakened on Tuesday, but firmed on Wednesday as investors continued to digest how much clout Ramaphosa wields.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictory for Ramaphosa, but not a loss for Zuma,\u201d said Geoff Blount, managing director at BayHill Capital.<\/p>\n
Zuma has faced allegations of corruption since he became head of state in 2009, but has denied any wrongdoing. The president has also faced allegations that his friends the wealthy Gupta businessmen wielded undue influence over his government.<\/p>\n
Zuma and the Guptas have denied the accusations.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa alluded to these allegations in his speech, saying, \u201cAt the state level we must confront the reality that critical institutions of our state have been targeted by individuals and families, through the exercise of influence and the manipulation of governance processes and public resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said this had weakened the state-owned enterprises in Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy. South Africa, the continent\u2019s traditional powerhouse, has had lethargic growth over the last six years and the jobless rate stands near record levels.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa also had a warning for corporate executives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must investigate without fear or favour the so-called \u2018accounting irregularities\u2019 that cause turmoil in the markets and wipe billions off the investments of ordinary South Africans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
South African furniture retailer Steinhoff, has been embroiled in a scandal over accounting irregularities, which have wiped more than $10 billion off its market value over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Johannesburg, Cyril Ramaphosa, the new leader of South Africa\u2019s governing ANC party, said on Thursday he aims to stamp out corruption and pursue a policy of \u201cradical economic transformation\u201d that will speed up expropriation of land without compensation. Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old union leader who became a businessman and is now one of South Africa\u2019s richest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14812,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions\/14812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}