South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in for his second term on Wednesday following his resounding victory in a parliamentary vote.
Ramaphosa was honored with a 21-gun salute, military fly-bys, and a parade by servicemen after taking the oath of office.
He secured a majority in parliament with support from members of the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance, and other parties.
In the parliamentary vote last week, Ramaphosa defeated Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters by 283 votes to 44 in the 400-member house.
This marked the first time since apartheid ended that the ANC had to seek support from other parties to govern.
Previously, the ANC had comfortably ruled with its own majority, but issues like socio-economic inequality, corruption, and inadequate infrastructure have left many of its former supporters disillusioned.
Analysts caution that governing could be challenging, given the differing ideologies of the ANC, a former liberation movement, and the centrist, business-friendly Democratic Alliance, which garnered the second largest share of the vote in the national election, at 21%.
