New dawn for South Africa?
The election of Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa's new president has fueled huge hope for change, after nine years of economic stagnation and corruption scandals under his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
Sighs of relief could be heard all the way to Europe. South African singer-songwriter Jennifer Ferguson, a former MP for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) under Nelson Mandela in the 1990s, spoke to Euronews from her home in Sweden.
"There's a feeling of hope, of renewed energy. The scenes of the parliament bursting out into dance. It's the parliament I love," Ferguson said in a Skype interview.
"President Ramaphosa sits with an enormous responsibility now. First of all, to face and take ownership of the years that have brought us to this critical point, with Zuma and his support base and an ANC that you can say betrayed some of the very basic fundamental principles we struggled for and embodied in our constitution. There's been a massive betrayal," she said.
Ramaphosa was sworn in on Thursday (February 15) after the embattled Zuma resigned on the orders of the ANC.
A lead negotiator in the transition from apartheid to democracy and one of South Africa's most prominent businessmen, Ramaphosa took the helm early. General elections are not scheduled until next year.
He has pledged to tackle corruption, and investors have welcomed his election. There's hope he can help revive the country's stuttering economy and slash unemployment of over 25 percent.
David Lewis, Executive Director for the NGO Corruption Watch, told Euronews the country was experiencing great relief since Zuma's departure. He said he felt personally felt very positive about Rampahosa's election, calling the new leader's public service record "outstanding".
"I think he represents certainly a marked contrast with Zuma... It's generally said that he was Mandela's favourite candidate to succeed him. So I have no quibbles with Cyril, I think he's definitely the best person to have taken this position," Lewis said in an interview.
"I think also we'll see at last the return to some serious policy discussion. One of the not so remarked upon impacts of the Zuma regime has been the complete absence has been the complete absence of discussion about any of the pressing issues in South Africa, of which there are many: massive unemployment, rampant inequality, still very high levels of poverty, those are the kinds of things we need to tackle. Instead over the last nine years we've been preoccupied with questions of governance, corruption, maladministration because that's what at the time seemed to be the most urgent tasks we had to deal with."