In May, Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in for a five-year term as the president of South Africa. He faces major challenges, including an ailing economy and high unemployment. Besides, he is also dealing with a series of controversial issues like land reform, crime and corruption.

But Ramaphosa insists that South Africa can prevail. And he said "a new era" has dawned for his country. So what can we expect as he sets about dealing with all of these issues?

Vuyolwethu Zungula, the president of the African Transformation Movement, points out the most important things that South African people want are jobs and means of living. Because of an unemployment crisis, many people are still living in poverty.

A South Africa newspaper said the country is facing "an explosive cocktail” of high youth employment, poor educational outcomes and high inequality levels. Zungula agrees with that view and stresses if there are many young people not doing anything the situation might explode into large-scale social disorder.

Zungula thinks the first step President Ramaphosa should take is to stimulate the economy and address unemployment through attracting investment for medium and small enterprises. Small businesses provide lots of jobs, and more investment will help them to create more working opportunities for young people.

He also indicates that the gap between the education system for the wealthy and the poor has led to social inequalities. South Africa needs a big change in the education system to improve the situation of the poor.

Lawson Naidoo, the executive director of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, contends that singling out wealthy white families is misplaced and is an attempt to undermine Ramaphosa because he had clearly set out that he will work with South Africans, whether it is business or labor, to rebuild the national economy. He can’t isolate anyone for there needs to be a concerted national effort.  

Naidoo argues that the process of recovery from the current problems associated with Ramaphosa's predecessor is underway. The president has begun the process of rehabilitating institutions of governance, particularly within the criminal justice sector and the South Africa Revenue Service to ensure the corruption of the past will not happen again. “Efforts have been made, and it is really about rebuilding confidence,” the executive director said.

Abdullahi Boru Halakh, an African policy analyst, believes Ramaphosa has one of the most difficult jobs in the world. He observed that the number of people voting is declining, and some people are moving towards the populist narrative of Julius Malema, the president of the Economic Freedom Fighters. “I think one of the jobs that he [Ramaphosa] needs to do is managing expectations on both ends of what could be achieved?”

Halakh indicates that the president should make hard choices involving political and economic costs. “60,000 white families on 86 percent of the land and in 1999, Nelson Mandela said that he would want 30 percent of the land to be transferred. Now, I think only eight percent have been transferred to the hands of black South Africans,” the policy analyst said. 

The present inequalities and employment are all driven by land tenure systems, and Ramaphosa has to fix this difficult problem.

Naidoo thinks the president has dealt with the land issue very deftly. Ramaphosa has pointed a task force which reported to him last week on land initiatives that need to be taken. He said that a lot of publicly owned land is available and the government should release that land essentially for housing purposes. 

“We need to make a clear distinction between the hunger for land in South Africa and what happened in Zimbabwe. This is not a hunger for farming land and rural land. The land issue in South Africa is primarily about housing opportunities in or close to the area where people can find jobs,” Naidoo said. In conclusion, the urbanization in South Africa has created the demand for housing.  

Another key issue which concerns South Africans is crime. Naidoo suggests efforts should be taken to revamp the criminal justice system. He points out the violence problem is a scar on the face of South Africa and it affects everybody. 

The government should properly tackle crime and have more visible police on the streets to engage with communities to get rid of gangsterism. Halakh also agreed with that and said the police service really needs to be improved because crime will pose a negative impact on investor confidence.

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