South Africa’s parliament elects Zuma

  1. Posted on Thursday 7 May 2009 - 12:20
    Mernat
    Image of Mernat
    Mernat Mafirakurewa, AfricaNews reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa
    South Africa's Parliament officially elected Jacob Zuma as president. Zuma would be inaugurated on Saturday marking a remarkable political comeback in recent history. "I hope to lead the country on a path of friendship, cooperation, harmony, unity and faster change," Zuma said after the election.
    Jacob Zuma
    President elect Zuma, 67, is expected to name his cabinet on Sunday a day after officially taking office.

    In his address to Parliament, Zuma promised to speed up progress on education, health and land reform, fight harder against crime, create more jobs and improve the lives of millions of impoverished black South Africans who have seen little benefit since apartheid ended 15 years ago.

    “We mean business when we talk about faster change," Zuma said, adding that his immediate priority was to limit the fallout from the global economic crisis, which has pushed South African unemployment back up to 23.5%.

    Zuma's long-dominant African National Congress (ANC) party won elections last month with 65.9% of the vote, giving it 264 seats in the 400-member National Assembly but with less than the two-thirds majority needed to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged, or change the Constitution.

    Democratic Alliance (DA) party has 67 seats, the Congress of the People (Cope) formed last year by disgruntled ANC members has 30 seats and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has 18, with smaller parties making up the balance.

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