Zuma leaves a legacy of graft and incompetence, shown by his own charge sheet and the various scandals around his family and cabinet.

The president resigned on Wednesday night just hours after playing confused at why his decimated party would want him out in a TV interview.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said his hesitance to "do the honourable thing" (quit) showed he saw the presidency as a "personal fiefdom".

Miners will be happy with the instant uptick in their share prices off the back of the news: Anglo American (LN:AAL), Gold Fields (SJ:GFI) and Harmony Gold (SJ:HAR) were all up at least 3% in morning trade on Thursday.

The FTSE/JSE general mining index was up over 3% on the resignation.  

The leadership change was also partly priced-in to South African miners following Ramaphosa's election as ANC leader in December.

Mining minister Mosebenzi Zwane was allied with Zuma and the Gupta family, and will likely soon be either sacked or on trial for his role in handing the now-infamous brothers R220 million (US$18.9 million) earmarked for poor dairy farmers in Free State.

His former departmental head in Free State has already been arrested over the fraud. 

Zwane's speech to Mining Indaba this month did not mention the botched new mining charter nor give any indication of a plan for mining's place in the South African economy.

The South African Department of Mineral Resources is currently slated to defend the new charter in court next week. 

RBC said Zuma's resignation should excite Anglo investors.

"The emergence of a more pro-business ANC should allow for an improved operating environment," Tyler Broda said.

"There is also a greater likelihood that Anglo, should it desire to, could make structural changes to its corporate structure that could streamline previous challenges like the capital controls on South African profits, etc."