South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa took the oath of office for a second mandate on Wednesday after his overwhelming win in a parliamentary vote.
Ramaphosa received a 21_gun salute, military fly-bys and a parade of honour by the servicemen after being sworn in.
He retained the top job after securing majority votes among members of parliament allied to the African National Congress ANC, the Democratic Alliance and other parties backed his candidacy in parliament last week.
Ramaphosa defeated Julius Malema of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters 283 votes to 44 in the 400-member house.
It was the first time the ANC had to appeal to other parties to form a government in post-apartheid South Africa. It had usually ruled the country with a comfortable majority, but socio-economic inequality, graft, and poor infrastructure left many of its erstwhile supporters disillusioned.
Analysts warn there might be complications ahead, though, given the starkly different ideologies of the ANC, a former liberation movement, and the centrist, business-friendly Democratic Alliance, which won 21% of the vote in the national election, the second largest share behind the ANC’s 40%.