South Africans rejoice over the long-awaited resignation of Jacob Zuma

South Africans have expressed satisfaction after the resignation of Jacob Zuma as president on Thursday night. His late but expected announcement was welcomed by leaders of his party, the African National Congress (ANC), the opposition parties and members of the public among others.

Zuma has embroiled the country in a lot of controversies over issues of corruption and poor leadership which have been condemned by high profiled people and groups in the country.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation which was founded by the country’s first black president in 1999 to promote good governance, freedom and equality, had earlier called on Zuma to resign over the allegations of corruption which it described as a disgrace to the presidency once occupied by Nelson Mandela.

“The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomes the decision made by President Jacob Zuma to resign from office. That it took him so long to do the honourable thing attests again to the degree to which he had come to see the presidency as his personal fiefdom,” said the foundation chaired by professor Njabulo Ndebele of the University of Cape Town.

David Lewis, executive director of South Africa’s anti-corruption agency Corruption Watch said on Thursday that the removal of Jacob Zuma is a “victory of the people of South Africa, mobilised by civil society organisations, informed by the media and supported by the courts and the constitution.”

For the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, Julius Malema, Zuma was a “post-colonial disaster” who almost collapsed the country. He stated that the whole parliament is guilty as Zuma and no one deserves to be president. Malema called for a new election to elect a president.

Zuma has officially tendered in his resignation to parliament and the Acting President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to be sworn in later today as the president until the general elections in 2019.