Cyril Ramaphosa was elected the new South African president on Thursday after opposition parties refused to participate in the vote and unsuccessfully called for the dissolution of the parliament and early elections.
"There are no further nominations. Only one candidate has been nominated, namely, the honourable Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, the nomination is in order. Accordingly … I declare the honorable Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa duly elected president," Chief Justice Mogoeng Thomas Reetsang Mogoeng said.
Ramaphosa is South Africa's fifth president since 1994. He will be tasked with reviving the reputation the ANC, a party and a movement that played a crucial role in fighting against the apartheid system but lost popularity amid corruption allegations.
The development comes after parliament received a letter of resignation from President Jacob Zuma earlier in the day. Zuma, who has been the South African president for nine years, announced his resignation on Wednesday before the end of his term in 2019. The announcement came after the president had lost the support of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC).
The ANC has been under pressure from the opposition following the scandal surrounding the waste of state property. Since 2014, the opposition has disrupted meetings of the legislative assembly urging Zuma to return money to the treasury. Zuma has consistently denied the allegations of corruption, arguing that the security agencies controlled the financial operations in the country.
