Cyril Ramaphosa Wins A.N.C. Leadership Battle in South Africa

Typical corrupt socialist tribal strongman. Nothing changes except new public thieves

The African National Congress is not different from other African liberation movements in that they were unable to translate their legitimacy, acquired as agents of liberation, towards accountable governance. Former liberation fighters who were respected had fallen to temptations of corruption, nepotism and a sense of entitlement. The disgraceful end of Mugabe who is also a friend of Zuma is the most recent example. These leaders have not been able to shake off the old political dictum that goes like: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ramaphosa comes with his own baggage in that he has already used his ANC connections to accumulate enormous wealth. South Africa is desperate for meaningful change but can this be done without fundamental structural change, unsettling the newly black wealthy class and the entrenched white privileged population. At least in terms of economics, apartheid is still alive and well. Ramaphosa has won his party's leadership but without a convincing mandate. Key positions are still retained by the Zuma faction. Can he really clean house even if he wants to? It seems like a tall order to me. I hope I can be proven wrong.

Cyril Ramaphosa was the best hope for South Africa and it is great news that he has won the ANC leadership a precursor to the South African presidency. Another Zuma (ex wife of Jacob Zuma) would have been a disaster. Hopefully , Ramaphosa can end traces of xenophobia and bring much needed stability and a corruption free good governance and the revival of the rainbow nation that has stagnated for much of this century.

South Africa has rid itself of its own Donald Trump. Try it America, it feels great!

South Africa has yet to fulfill its enormous promise and potential due to a decade of incredibly bad government . Ramaphosa is a talented leader with considerable business acumen and his ascension together with the change in leadership in Zimbabwe may give rise to new hope. People forget the terrible burden that South Africa has had to carry due to millions of refugees from Zimbabwe .Hopefully they can return safely to their homes. I hope the international community invests in the opportunities in SA, renewable energy, natural gas , tourism to name just three. Maybe China will step up even more, it makes sense for them and South Africa. Ramaphosa will see this opportunity.

The way you ended the report says everything: "But to others, it is not yet clear that an insider can dismantle the very system that so richly rewarded him." The system is so corrupt you wonder how a handful of so-called "freedom fighters" ripped the system for personal benefits. Don't forget that Zuma also "fought" with Mandela too. Mandela is one of the history's exceptions. Time to time the world gives us such unique humans but it also shows their limitations.

This is one of the best endowed countries in the world resource-wise but its population in proportion to its resources and governing intelligence is out of control. No one should expect anything other than mismanagement, corruption and poverty for a long time to come.

The SACP and COSATU should have long ago ditched the tripartite coalition that is the ANC. I fail to see how dissolving the coalition at this point would be bad for the country. It would enliven political debate in the country and bring more diversity into the elections cycle -- something badly needed in South Africa. With this said, Mr. Ramaphosa deserves a shot. Let's see what he can do.

Nelson Mandela's dreams for South Africa have been revived.

In all the euphoria, a comment - this man became very wealthy "using his ties to the party". Now people expect corruption to be eliminated and tribal politics to be changed? At best, I hope this will avert the descent into another Zimbabwe/Rhodesia. But I don't think I'll hold my breath.

It's ironic Ramaphosa is viewed as the one best positioned to end corruption and return confidence to the markets, as he himself is a symbol of corruption and manipulation of the markets. South Africa is experiencing "state capture," where the state's assets have become controlled and are manipulated by the chosen few. Those chosen few would have to include Ramaphosa, but since he knows the system so well and has profited from it enormously, perhaps he is the one best positioned to end its corruption.

The ANC made a faustian bargain with the apartheid white government of South Africa. It exchanged ridding the country of apartheid for consenting to only a few already wealthy blacks becoming part of the business and financial leadership of the country. Thus while the ANC controls the parliament, the executive, and to some extent the courts (note the paltry sentence Oscar Pistorius received from a black judge for the killing of Riva Steenkamp.), whites control the capital, the diamond mines, the banks, and the manufacturing firms, and food distribution. Most blacks live in slums, have inferior education, and inadequate health care. This will continue until a revolution takes place (hopefuily a peaceful one), casting out the ANC.

Relief. C'mon South Africa, you can do this! Take it all the way and clean house.

Ramaphosa has already made his money using his political connections and that probably has vetted his appetite. Once in power he will enrich himself and his coterie even more with lax business regulations and also now will have the authority to protect his wealth. This is the prediction I have as their behavior will rarely change without accountability. But would be happy to be wrong on behalf of South Africa citizens who need better education, infrastructure and accesibility to good health care and security.

Great news. Ramaphosa should have followed Mandela into office but the ANC-in-exile faction preferred the pure ideologues who had not had to compromise while down in the trenches negotiating with the apartheid government as Ramaphosa had while leading union negotiations. He was one of many such pragmatic leaders shunted aside (mainly sent to regional positions) by the in-exile faction. If Ramaphosa had followed Mandela, he could have continued South Africa's upward trajectory. Instead, he will have to work to pull it out of a tailspin.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ejRW August 4, 2014 Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, India, Brazil and South Africa, 1977-2016 (Percent change) https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ejRX August 4, 2014 Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, India, Brazil and South Africa, 1977-2016 (Indexed to 1977)

Plus ca change, plus la meme chose. Until the ANC loses an election nothing will change. South Africa is effectively a one-party state. Corruption will taint it for a long time, perhaps a very long time. That may be a harsh judgment but it's realistic.

Cyril Ramaphosa, in the tradition of Nelson Mandela, should have long ago been elected the ANC leader for the well-being of South Africans as a whole. South African development has faltered since 2000, growing a mere 26.2% in real per capita terms since 2000. The development model for Mandela was to be Singapore and I would hope that model might be tried now.