Joahnnesburg: South Africans are joking that new president Cyril Ramaphosa has hit the ground running — literally.
On Tuesday, the 65-year-old invited Cape Town residents to join him on his daily morning walk, saying he wanted to encourage healthy living.
Hundreds of citizens of all races joined the president, who was sporting a Nelson Mandela cap and a tracksuit with the logo of the ruling African National Congress party.
Ramaphosa, who was sworn in last week after scandal-plagued predecessor Jacob Zuma was forced to resign, chatted easily with Cape Town residents and joked to television cameras that he needed to get rid of his belly.
“Hashtag ‘mkhaba must fall,’ hashtag ‘the tummy must fall,’” the president joked, slyly echoing another Twitter hashtag that has been popular in South Africa in recent years: “#ZumaMustFall”. Mkhaba is a local word for stomach.
President Ramaphosa said his early morning walks gave him time to think about his cabinet amid growing speculation about its composition. “This is the time to walk, to reflect even about cabinet and all that,” he told reporters during his walk in response to a question on whether there was time to shake up his cabinet ahead of the budget speech on Wednesday.
The South African department of health statistics showed almost 70per cent of women and 40 per cent of men were obese in 2016 and that obesity-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease accounted for 43 per cent of deaths in the country.
South Africans took up Ramaphosa’s suggested hashtag with gusto, praising the president for his initiative.
“Our president says #MkhabaMustFall and when he speaks I listen...lawd [Lord] knows I need mine gone. hehehe,” one user, Lesego S Masethe,tweeted.
— Agencies
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