Acting President Cyril Ramaphosa has been elected as the new President-elect of South Africa.
Presiding over the election, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng announced him as the President-elect after his nomination was unanimous.
“There are no further nominations. Only one candidate has been nominated. The honourable Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa. The nomination is in order. Accordingly … I declare the Honourable Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa duly elected President of the Republic of South Africa.”
Shortly after his election, the house erupted into song with both MPs and guests in the gallery joining in the celebration.
After returning to the podium, Speaker Baleka Mbete took some time to wish the President well.
“South Africa has just emerged from a historic and challenging time. On the election of the new President Cyril Ramaphosa, we wish you strength and fortitude in this challenging role,” she said.
The Speaker then invited members of Parliament to deliver messages of support to the President-elect Ramaphosa.
He will remain a President-elect until he gets sworn in later this afternoon.
The President-elect took time to respond to individual messages of support from all representatives of political parties.
“This is truly a humbling experience. I would like to thank all members of this Assembly for the honour you have bestowed on me to serve my people.
“One of the things I want to do is to work with all political parties. I would do all this as a servant of our people.
He asked the leader of the Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane, to work together with them to better the lives of South Africans.
“Hon Maimane I am going to be seeing you here regularly, leave 2019 aside and let us work towards improving the lives of our people.”
He said while he will miss being a Member of Parliament as he will cease to be a member after being sworn-in as President, he looked forward to returning to Parliament to account.
He also said government would continue to tackle corruption and issues like strengthening SOES and dealing with state capture.
“We are going to seek to improve the lives of our people on an on-going basis and since 1994, we have done precisely that.
“The lives of our people have been improving on an on-going basis and the commitment that you will find on this side, which commitment I would also like you to be part of, is the commitment that we will continue to improve the lives of our people and take their lives to a higher level,” he said.– SAnews.gov.za
