South Africans chose hope – Ramaphosa

Newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa encouraged South Africans to “determine their destiny” and unite in building a better South Africa as a “new era has dawned”.

The fourth democratically elected President was inaugurated in an extravagant formal ceremony at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday.

Ramaphosa, who had served as President for the past year after the resignation of Jacob Zuma, confidently walked up to the podium after being officially elected to run the country earlier this month.

He acknowledged that South Africans remained disappointed by those whom they had trusted, as they instead turned to corruption, power and riches while squandering the country’s resources.

“Despite our most earnest efforts, many South Africans still go to bed hungry, many succumb to diseases that can be treated, many live lives of intolerable deprivation. Too many of our people do not work, especially the youth.”

But even with such challenges, South Africans remained “resolute, resilient and unwavering”, the President said. Citizens of the country used their power of the ballot on 8 May, to “declare the dawn of a new era” and chose “unity over conflict and divisions”.

“Despite our differences, despite a past of conflict and division and bitterness, despite the fierce political contestation among 48 political parties in recent months, we share the same hopes and fears, the same anxieties and aspirations.

“We are bound together by our determination that never again shall the adversities of our past be visited on the people of this land… Today is the choice of history. It is a time or us to make the future we yearn for. It is through our actions now that we will determine our destiny.”

However, he was hopeful that South Africans would take the responsibility of building a desirable society free from disadvantage and privilege.

“It is a society where those who have much are willing to share with those who have little. It is a society where every person, regardless of race or sex or circumstance, may experience the fundamental necessities of a decent, dignified life.

“Today, let us declare before the esteemed witnesses gathered here that such a South Africa is possible.”

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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