# South Africa: ANC Recalls President Jacob Zuma, elects Cyril Ramaphosa **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 13, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758 "2018-02-13T12:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/21 "2018-02-14T14:11:11Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > Zuma seems to be obstinately clinging to his, now powerless, title and praying for an 11th hour miracle. Political opportunists (and enemies alike) know he’s out of moves and are acting for a quick removal (possible prosecution even). > > Politics is a fickle game; today president, tomorrow lunch. Zuma spent the last nine years enriching himself. The very comfortable presidential salary wasn’t enough; he was a multimillionaire seeking to live like a billionaire. He siphoned money and tenders to himself,his family and cronies. He placed his mediocre acolytes in critical state institutions, damaging and weakening them, including the Public Protector’s office, National Prosecuting Authority and key ministerial portfolios.Unsurprisingly, the economy stagnated and SA’s already high unemployment rate rose even further. The ANC lost a number of municipal strongholds, including Johannesburg, in local government elections. If the ANC wants to reverse the electoral decline (no date has been set but national and provincial elections will be held around April 2019) they need to get Zuma out of office and disassociate themselves from Zuma ASAP. Zuma still has his toadies in the ANC but Zuma is yesterdays news;said toadies have found or will find a new ship to hitch themselves to. Zuma is increasingly finding himself alone in a bed he made and must now lie in. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/22 "2018-02-14T14:49:48Z")
It might be time for a “what’s his resulting legacy” thread. It was 8 years ago that our South African dopers had a opinion of the guy which ranged from a cautious-optimistic approach: > [@South Africa, where to now?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-where-to-now/528704/25): > > Really, as President, Zuma hasn’t yet done anything that I would particularly object to. I have to rate him higher than Mbeki if just for the change in HIV/AIDS policy. I agree that he seems more grounded; perhaps he’s a little bit _too_ populist for my taste, but in balance I think it’s better than Mbeki’s “ivory tower” attitude. Zuma does seem to give at least the appearance of caring about what’s happing to the “man in the street” - although of course it could all be PR spin. …to a grounded/resigned realism: > [@South Africa, where to now?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-where-to-now/528704/26): > > The Zuma presidency could be a lot worse (Malema could actually be a Minister or something :(), and while I used to think Mbeki was a good president aside from the AIDS thing, it seems I was wrong about him and he was actually just fronting, as more stuff about the underhandedness has come out. One thing I’ll say about Zuma, what you see is pretty much what you get, even if it isn’t pretty, and he definitely thinks with his penis first,which isn’t reassuring (but - Kennedy, Clinton, they were OK presidents, weren’t they?) > > I have it good authority that you can’t give the man any policy documents to read, he prefers verbal briefings as he finds reading tough going, which is a little too Dubya-like for my liking, but any quirks like that are balanced out by the reversal on AIDS policy. Those were the -mostly character based- predictions, any additional thoughts looking back at the last 8 years? ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/23 "2018-02-14T21:10:51Z")
Aaaaand… he’s out. Zuma just resigned with immediate effect on live TV. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/24 "2018-02-15T06:08:41Z")
…and there was much rejoicing. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/25 "2018-02-15T06:10:20Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > It might be time for a “what’s his resulting legacy” thread. It was 8 years ago that our South African dopers had a opinion of the guy which ranged from a cautious-optimistic approach: …to a grounded/resigned realism:Those were the -mostly character based- predictions, any additional thoughts looking back at the last 8 years? He was much worse than I imagined he would be, is my thought. But really, I blame the ANC for letting him get away with it for so long. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/26 "2018-02-15T13:16:44Z")
Well, Cyril Ramaphosa is the new president. Let’s hold thumbs. ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758/27 "2018-02-19T12:55:19Z")
> [@ctnguy](#): > > Aaaaand… he’s out. Zuma just resigned with immediate effect on live TV. Very sad day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-anc-recalls-president-jacob-zuma-elects-cyril-ramaphosa/808758.md?page=1)