South Africa Swears In Cyril Ramaphosa as New President

There were cheers in South Africa’s national assembly Thursday as the speaker announced that she had received a formal letter of resignation from Jacob Zuma before new president Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in. “South Africa has just emerged from a historic and challenging time,” said Speaker Baleka Mbete. Ramaphosa is a member of the same ruling party as Zuma, the African National Congress, which has won every national election since Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994. Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, welcomed the new president but called for swift elections. “We don’t have a Jacob Zuma problem, we have an ANC problem,” he said.