(Pretoria) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, re-elected for a second term, but without an absolute majority for his party in Parliament, was sworn in on Wednesday during an inauguration ceremony with great fanfare in Pretoria.
The official ceremony began at midday at the government headquarters, called the Union Buildings, located in the hills of the South African capital.
“I, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, swear that I will be faithful to the Republic of South Africa and will obey, observe, defend and preserve the Constitution and all laws of the Republic,” the Head of State solemnly declared of 71 years before Raymond Zondo, president of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country.
At the start of the morning, under a cold southern winter sun, the guests in traditional costumes or evening dresses warmed with a coat were greeted in trickles by the spectacle of local musicians and dancers.
About twenty heads of state and government were expected. The king of the Zulus, the largest ethnic group in the southern African country, is present, as well as former South African president Thabo Mbeki, the widow of the country’s first black president Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and the wife of the country’s last white president Frederik de Klerk.
The presidential convoy, led by about 30 motorcyclists and topped with green, red and gold national flags, arrived shortly before noon. Wearing a dark suit and a dignified air, Mr Ramaphosa climbed the red-carpeted steps of the Union Buildings holding his wife’s hand.
The swearing-in ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and the playing of the national anthem while air force helicopters unfurled national flags in the sky.
Head of State and President of the African National Congress (ANC), the party in power in South Africa since the end of apartheid, Cyril Ramaphosa became President of the Republic for the first time after the resignation of Jacob Zuma in February 2018 .
Elected in 2020, he was re-elected for five years by the National Assembly last week, after legislative elections on May 29 which ended in a bitter defeat for the ANC.
Sanctioned at the polls in a climate of growing poverty, endemic unemployment and corruption cases, the historic party lost its absolute majority in Parliament for the first time by falling below 50% of the vote. It now only holds 159 of the 400 parliamentary seats, which elect the president.
Cyril Ramaphosa will have to lead a coalition government unprecedented in thirty years of democracy and share power with part of the opposition.
Negotiations for the formation of the next government are still underway and speculation is rife about the portfolios that will have to be ceded by the ANC.
The leading opposition political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), a liberal party still widely perceived as white and holding 87 seats in the Assembly, responded to Mr Ramaphosa’s call to form a “unity government national.”
So did the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which won 17 MP positions, and two other small parties.
The left-wing radicals of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) of the turbulent Julius Malema and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party of the now ineligible ex-president Jacob Zuma have, for their part, come together in recent days, each promising to “ crush” the “white-led” government alliance.
The MK, which filed an appeal contesting the results of the parliamentary elections, said in a statement that its elected MPs will not attend “the grotesque inauguration ceremony of Cyril Ramaphosa”, calling the latter a “puppet” in the hands of the DA.
