Randolph Defiant to the end, Jacob Zuma is the second president of the Republic of South Africa to be recalled by the African National Congress. Tonight he resigned during a speech that was clearly not written by him.
When Thabo Mbeki was recalled almost ten years ago, it also made history for South Africa’s fledgling democracy. At the time I wrote:
The deputy president said she would go if Mbeki left, so it looks like the Speaker of the House will be sworn in as acting president.
As it turns out, the order of succession in this case is very simple. The vice president, Cyril Ramaphosa, becomes the acting president until he is sworn in later this week.
Side note: Cyril used to run the company that bought the company that merged with the company I used to work for. He’s effectively my old boss.