Ramaphosa Asserts ANC Power Over Zuma's Government in S. Africa

• January 14 2018
• Karl Maier

South Africa’s ruling-party leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, said President Jacob Zuma and the rest of the government must accept the decisions of the African National Congress because it’s the real center of power.

South Africa’s ruling-party leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, said President Jacob Zuma and the rest of the government must accept the decisions of the African National Congress because it’s the real center of power.

“Everyone has to be receptive to the decisions of the ANC because that is the political center,” Ramaphosa said in a television interview broadcast Sunday by Johannesburg-based eNCA. “You have got to accept the decisions and you also have to accept the direction that you are given by the ANC.”

Ramaphosa, 65, said his discussions with Zuma since taking over the leadership of the ANC have gone “very, very smoothly.” A commission of inquiry into allegations that Zuma oversaw “state capture” by allowing members of the Gupta family to influence cabinet appointments and the award of government contracts must go ahead without delay, he said.

Ramaphosa’s interview was broadcast a day after his first major policy speech since winning the presidency of South Africa’s dominant party at a conference last month. In the address, he vowed to fight graft, revive a struggling economy and restore investor confidence that has been eroded under Zuma’s scandal-ridden administration.