South Africa: ANC Recalls President Jacob Zuma, elects Cyril Ramaphosa

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.

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?

Aaaaand… he’s out. Zuma just resigned with immediate effect on live TV.

…and there was much rejoicing.

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.

Well, Cyril Ramaphosa is the new president. Let’s hold thumbs.

Very sad day.