Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived to take his oath of office. He is accompanied by his wife Tshepo Motsepe.
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Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who will be administering Cyril Ramaphosa’s oath of office, has arrived at the venue.
Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe have taken their seats. Earlier, former deputy president David Mabuza also arrived at the Union Buildings. As reported earlier, former president Jacob Zuma is not in attendance.
Incumbent deputy president Paul Mashatile has also arrived at the Union Buildings.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe has arrived at the Union Buildings for Cyril Ramaphosa inauguration.
Recently, Zimbabwe’s consulate in South Africa announced that it would start rolling out an e-passport facility, starting on Tuesday.
Former president Jacob Zuma will not be attending president-elect Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration.
According to uMkhonto weSizwe Party, which he leads, Zuma and his party members are staying away from the “symbolic wedding ceremony of a house negro called Ramaphosa, with slave master Helen Zille”.
This is the second inauguration Zuma won’t be attending, after he missed Ramaphosa’s first oath-of-office ceremony in 2019.
The rand has broken through the crucial R18/$ barrier on Wednesday morning, sitting at R17,98.
All eyes will be on the rand in the coming days and weeks as South Africa comes to terms with the new ANC-DA-IFP government of national unity (GNU) coalition set to govern the country for the next five years.
Graca Machel, widow of South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela, and Elita de Klerk – widow of apartheid’s last president FW de Klerk – have arrived for Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration.
Newly elected deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Annelie Lotriet, has arrived at the Union Buildings. She is the Democratic Alliance’s first holder of the office, deputising for Thoko Didiza – the speaker of the National Assembly.
Amos Masondo and Sylvia Lucas are also in attendance. Masondo is the former chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), while Lucas is the former deputy chair of the NCOP.
The South African’s readers will remember Lucas over her statement that “load shedding is not the end of world“. She previously also spent over R50,000 on fast food using her official credit card when she was premier of the Northern Cape.
Cyril Ramaphosa is enthused and looking forward to working in the seventh administration, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya tells Newzroom Afrika.
Magwenya also said the president-elect was busy deciding on the shape and configuration of his Cabinet.
“You’ll be hearing from him [Ramaphosa] soon. I’m not able to give a timeline. Not today, certainly,” Magwenya told anchor Naledi Moleo.
Earlier, president-elect Cyril Ramaphosa – flanked by Defence Minister Thandi Modise and Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni – surveyed the state of readiness ahead of his inauguration as head of state.
The programme directors for the Cyril Ramaphosa inauguration are incumbent Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor, and ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane.
It is rumoured that the popular Pandor could return as minister in Ramaphosa’s cabinet, although it was initially thought she would retire from the executive.
The Cyril Ramaphosa inauguration is set to begin just after 11AM. Already, members of Parliament and other guests have started to take their seats at the Union Buildings in Tshwane.
Ramaphosa will then begin his second term as president of South Africa, under a newly configured government of national union. He is expected to name his Cabinet soon after he is sworn in by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
