Cyril Ramaphosa elected as president of South Africa after Zuma departure

Mike Hutchings | AFP | Getty Images

Cyril Ramaphosa, acting president of South Africa, reacts as he arrives at Parliament in Cape Town on February 15, 2018, for a session to officially deal with former President Zuma’s resignation and his possible election and swearing-in.

African National Congress (ANC) leader Cyril Ramaphosa has been sworn in as South Africa’s new president, following his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s departure Wednesday night after a long power struggle.

Ramaphosa, 65, was formerly Zuma’s deputy president. He was elected leader of the ruling ANC in December, narrowly defeating Zuma’s chosen candidate, his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The new president’s resume includes both politics and business. Ramaphosa is one of South Africa’s richest men, with an estimated net worth of $450 million.

A lawyer by profession from Soweto, Ramaphosa was detained for anti-apartheid activism twice during the 1970s. He launched South Africa’s most powerful trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers, in 1982.

Ramaphosa served as the ANC’s chief negotiator ahead of South Africa’s transition to democracy, and chairman of the committee which facilitated former President Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990.