Cyril Ramaphosa pledged a crackdown on corruption in his first speech as the leader of South Africa\u2019s ruling African National Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorruption has to come to a stop and it must happen with immediate effect,\u201d Ramaphosa said in the closing address to the ANC\u2019s national elective conference in the early hours of Thursday morning. \u201cWe must confront the reality that critical institutions of our state have been targeted by individuals and families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graft has become increasingly rife in South Africa under Jacob Zuma, who has led the ruling party since December 2007 and the country since May 2009 and is fending off charges that he took bribes from arms dealers.<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s graft ombudsman indicated that members of the Gupta family, who are friends with Zuma and are in business with his son, had been allowed to influence the awarding of cabinet posts and state contracts. Zuma, who\u2019s due to step down as the nation\u2019s president in 2019, and the Guptas deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa didn\u2019t directly link Zuma to wrongdoing his the speech, and instead thanked him for his service to the ANC. Zuma backed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his ex-wife and mother of four of his more than 20 children, to succeed him.<\/p>\n
The ANC\u2019s new leader reiterated the party\u2019s resolutions to implement radical economic transformation to give the black majority a bigger state in the economy and provide free tertiary education.<\/p>\n
He affirmed the party\u2019s decision to seize land without compensation to speed up land reform, but said it would only be done in a responsible manner that didn\u2019t harm the economy, agricultural production or food security.<\/p>\n