Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Saturday attended the inauguration Ceremony of President-elect Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Held in the capital city, Pretoria, the ceremony was expected to attract over 30,000 South Africans and various Heads of State and Government including Eswatini, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Uganda, Madagascar, Seychelles, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Angola, Mozambique, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Namibia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, as well as the African Union Chairperson and Chair of the Southern African Development Community.
Ramaphosa led the ruling African National Congress to victory in the May 8 national and provincial polls. Despite losing ground, the party maintained its majority in the National Assembly.
In March 2018, on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Summit of the African Union in Kigali, Presidents President Paul Kagame and his South African counterpart President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered Foreign Affairs Ministers to work on normalization of relations between the two countries.
Rwanda and South Africa have had sour relations after South Africa expelled in 2014 three Rwandan diplomats to which Rwanda retaliated by expelling six South African envoys
CU/abj/APA