It seems Ramaphosa has a rough ride trying to succeed Zuma. He is leading in the opinion polls so far. My hope is that the ANC slides below 50% in the 2019 elections - which will force them to embrace anti-corruption and meritocracy - as they face serious DA and EFF onslaughts. Right now Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa are competing on the wealth redistribution platform - corruption is not in the picture.
Ramaphosa comes from a small tribe. Venda or Tsonga. One of those. To be fair, SA has not reached that level of ukabila yet, but you still have to wonder. But he is not a credible wealth redistribution guy.
Yeah Ramaphosa is perceived as pro-business like Mbeki. He has a long clean CV. SA is a parliamentary system which works for the small tribes. Mbeki I think was from a small tribe. Mzungu economic monopoly is still the determining factor. Noone has the balls to crack that nut. Malema's EFF is a radical redistribution party - Mugabe-style - but has not gained traction.
Mbeki is Xhosa(number 2 after their Zulu cousins). But I agree the parliamentary system seems to be what works in most parts of the world.
Malema, another small tribe guy(same group as Ramaphosa I think), is a populist, like Zuma was before coming to power. Once in power, they change tune.