Johannesburg, June 19 (IANS) Cyril Ramaphosa, leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), took the oath of office as the nation’s president for the next five years Wednesday at a ceremony in Pretoria, the administrative capital.
“As the President of the Republic, I will work with everyone to reach out and work with every political party and sector that is willing to contribute to finding solutions to the challenges our country faces as we transition to a new decade of freedom,” Ramaphosa said in his address at the ceremony, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ramaphosa, 71, was reelected as South African president by the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on June 14, receiving 283 votes. His opponent, Julius Malema from the Economic Freedom Fighters, garnered 44 votes. Under the South African Constitution, once elected by the National Assembly, the president-elect must assume office within five days.
“We will invite all parties, civil society, labor, business, and other formations to a national dialogue on the critical challenges facing the nation. We will seek, as we have done at so many important moments in our history, to forge a social compact to realize the aspirations of our National Development Plan,” said Ramaphosa, emphasising the significance of forming a government of national unity.
In the general elections on May 29, the ANC secured 159 out of the 400 seats in the National Assembly, falling below the 50 percent needed to maintain its 30-year-old outright majority in the lower house of parliament for the first time.
The ANC on Monday announced that a total of five political parties, including the ANC, the Democratic Alliance, the Inkatha Freedom Party, GOOD and the Patriotic Alliance, have officially signed a statement of intent to participate in the government of national unity.
–IANS
int/as/arm
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
