CYRIL RAMAPHOSA was sworn in today as South Africa’s new president after the resignation late last night of Jacob Zuma.

Ramaphosa was the only candidate nominated for election after two opposition parties said they would not participate.

They instead tried to have parliament dissolved and elections brought forward from 2019.

Zuma resigned after years of scandals that damaged the reputation of the ruling ANC, which had instructed him this week to step down or face a parliamentary motion of no confidence that he would almost certainly have lost.

Mr Zuma denies any wrongdoing, brazeningly saying in a television interview yesterday that he felt he was being treated unfairly and had not been told why he should quit.

He faces an investigation into his relationship with the billionaire Gupta family, which has been dubbed “state capture” because of their alleged influence, and the reopening of a corruption case related to a 1990s government arms deal.

Mr Ramaphosa is due to give the postponed State of the Nation Address tomorrow tonight, and is challenged with restoring the reputation of the ANC and rebuilding the alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and trade union confederation Cosatu.

In a statement today, Cosatu said that it welcomed Mr Rampahosa’s “long overdue” election and noted his past as a trade union leader and ANC negotiator.

But while the unions expressed relief at the resignation of Mr Zuma, Cosatu warned that there was no time for self-congratulatory back-slapping.

“There is no time for handling crooks with kid gloves. There is no time for laziness when addressing the jobs bloodbath and unemployment. We demand an activist, capacitated developmental state that we have long fought for,” it wrote.

“Cosatu expects government to wake up to the economic crisis that is drowning workers and their families in poverty and rising unemployment.”

The SACP noted the vital task of “radically reducing class, race and gender inequalities and uneven development between urban and rural areas” that Mr Ramaphosa must get to grips with.

“In particular, this requires increased attention to rural development and resolute policy measures to uplift the quality of life of the workers and poor through giving effect to the right to work as enshrined in the Freedom Charter and expanding decent work for all.”