Well done, Raila Odinga tells Cyril Ramaphosa on ANC poll win

Nasa leader Raila Odinga has congratulated South Africa’s Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa on his election as the new leader of the country’s independence party, the Africa National Congress.

In a statement, Mr Odinga said the win by Mr Ramaphosa, who he considered a personal friend, signals a new era of democracy in Africa.

2007-08 CHAOS

Mr Ramaphosa was on Monday declared the winner of the hotly contested race after beating his closest rival, former chairperson of the Africa Union Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is also an ex-wife of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma.

The anti-apartheid hero garnered 2,440 votes against Ms Dlamini-Zuma’s 2,261.

“The news of our comrade Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as the leader of the African National Congress will thrill democrats in South Africa, across Africa and indeed throughout the world,” Mr Odinga said in a statement on Monday evening.

“From this pivotal ANC position, and drawing on South Africa’s recently diminished but still vibrant global standing, he will restore the high respect that his nation as well as the continent enjoyed under the fabled leadership of Nelson Mandela in particular,” he added.

Mr Odinga’s close relationship with Mr Ramaphosa came to the limelight after the 2007/08 post-election violence when the South African leader was proposed to mediate the Kenyan stalemate.

SUCCESSOR

President Mwai Kibaki and his Party of National Unity flatly rejected Mr Ramaphosa, citing his friendship with Mr Odinga.

In the end, they settled on former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who helped broker a deal that ended Kenya’s descend into abyss of political turmoil.

President Zuma had picked his ex-wife amidst revolt from ANC members and supporters and her defeat has been seen by many as the beginning of correcting the errors of his rule.

The victory puts Mr Ramaphosa in line to succeed Mr Zuma, whose reign has been plagued by corruption scandals, economic slowdown and growing anger at the once-omnipotent party.

The Nasa leader said that Mr Ramaphosa’s background as democratic liberationist, trade union leader, high-level business executive and his lifelong Pan Africanism, will also give new energy to Africa’s economic dynamism.   

“In a discussion a year ago about running for the leadership of our respective political parties in Kenya and South Africa, we both emphasised the imperative of a renewed African democratisation in order to build the continent economically, engender equitable growth and contribute to the global movement for moral and ethical leadership.”