Late at night in a bleak, deserted office in the African darkness three decades ago, a young black union leader sought help from this white foreign correspondent.

Cyril Ramaphosa was crafting an announcement that established unionism irreversibly in South Africa’s critical gold mining industry, three years after it first became legal for black gold miners to join a union.

We worked to refine the wording and tell the world of a pending strike as the fog of teargas hung over the black townships around Johannesburg as the government violently battled protests against white minority rule,

The strike led by the general secretary was the first by the two-year-old black National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and set the-then activist on course to the top of the nation.

Today, the 65-year-old charismatic former unionist heads the ruling African National Congress after his election last month in succession to President Jacob Zuma. He is potentially on track to inherit the mantle of first black president and Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela as president of the nation.

But as South Africa this year marks 70 years since apartheid racial segregation became state policy can he reverse rampant corruption, crime and cronyism and reverse the tragedy of a mineral rich nation whose masses have seen little benefit from democracy?

Mr Zuma’s presidency – during which he has amassed considerable wealth – has been marked by constant controversy over his lifestyle as a polygamist and allegations of money laundering and rape.

He has faced growing calls in the ANC to resign over corruption scandals, not least ties to a powerful Gupta family who deny claims of using friendship with him to influence government decisions.

Mr Ramaphosa’s election has been long delayed since South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, favoured him as his successor but was foiled by the party.

The son of a policeman and born in the sprawling black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg, the lawyer, union leader, and now tycoon could, with a fair wind, change the course of a potentially wealthy nation. He is counted on to improve the lot of blacks, many of whom live in apartheid-era townships in conditions not much changed from white rule.

His negotiating skills were honed in these early days of forming the union for black mineworkers which transformed workers’ rights. He was the ANC’s chief negotiator in the momentous talks with the last white president, F.W. de Klerk, which ended apartheid.

And during his years in the political wilderness, Mr Ramaphosa has become one of the nation’s richest businessmen under an ANC policy of assigning officials into business as traditionally white-run businesses gave stakes to blacks to create a new middle class. Forbes magazine estimates his worth at some £330 million.

That combination of union and private sector experience could be a benefit in bringing these sectors and the government together for the benefit of the country. However, there is criticism of the scale of his wealth and whether he really understands the challenges of ordinary people or is part of crony capitalism.

An incident when he bid more than £1 million for a buffalo and her calf is still remembered even though he apologised.

Can he turn round a country strangled by endemic corruption? Mr Ramaphosa is acclaimed as the saviour of the nation of some 56 million people, 80 per cent black and 10 per cent white. Many assume he will become president in elections next year when Mr Zuma ends his second five-year term, the limit under the constitution.

The financial markets seem to think so. The South African rand jumped earlier this month on what turned out to be false reports that Mr Zuma had resigned earlier, opening the way for Mr Ramaphosa.

In his first speech after his election, he promised a fight corruption and overhaul a stagnant economy with record-high unemployment.

The potential is certainly there: South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum, gold and chromium and a veritable treasure chest of other minerals.

His party, however, is so damaged with corruption, the erosion of democratic institutions, the growth of state control and in-fighting that he may struggle to win the role, which is decided by elections in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament. The ANC itself may struggle to get a majority

If Mr Zuma remains in office for his full term to next year the nation faces bruising dogfights between him and Mr Ramaphosa over the coming 18 months.

The new party leader must also work with Zuma-loyalists, allegedly part of a patronage network he needs to clean up, who were elected to half the other top ANC posts.

Outside observers can only hope and pray he can create the rainbow nation of equality that former Archbishop and anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu hoped for as apartheid ended in 1991.