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Farirai Machivenyika recently in TSHWANE, South Africa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on Africa to use its abundant talent to develop the continent and create employment for its young generation and women.

He was speaking during his inauguration ceremony held at Loftus Versfeld in the City of Tshwane on Saturday. President Mnangagwa was among the Heads of State and Government from Africa who attended the inauguration ceremony, receiving a raucous cheer as he stepped onto the red carpet.

Speaking at the event — held on Africa Day — President Ramaphosa laid a vision for Africa anchored on its young people.

He also emphasised that his country was ready to work with sister states on the continent to achieve a continental vision.

“Africa is poised once again to rise, to assume its place among the free and equal nations of the world,” he said.

“We must use that innovative talent that originated in Africa to embrace and use the fourth industrial revolution to develop Africa and create jobs for the youth and empower the women of our continent.”

President Ramaphosa said former president of the African National Congress Mr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme had laid out the vision for Africa over 100 years ago, adding it was now time to achieve the vision.

“Africa is poised to realise the vision of (Mr) Pixley ka Isaka Seme more than a century ago, when he said: ‘The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities. Her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business, and all her sons [and daughters] employed in advancing the victories of peace — greater and more abiding than the spoils of war’,” President Ramaphosa said.

The South African president said his country would work with other African countries to achieve the African Union (AU)’s Agenda 2063 aimed at industrialising the continent through exploitation of its abundant natural resources.

“Today, we reaffirm our determination to work with our sisters and brothers across the continent to realise the African Union’s vision of Agenda 2063,” he said

“To build the Africa that we all Africans want. To forge a free trade area that stretches from Cape Town to Cairo, bringing growth and opportunity all African countries. To silence the guns and let peace and harmony reign.

“Today, we declare that our progress as South Africa depends on — and cannot be separated from — the onward march of our beloved continent, Africa.”

President Ramaphosa is the sixth South African president since the dismantling of apartheid 25 years ago.

His African National Congress (ANC) won the May 8 elections with a with 57,5 percent majority.

The main opposition party — the Democratic Alliance (DA) — was a distant second with 20,8 percent of the vote while Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was third on 10,8 percent.