On Thursday Ethiopia swore in its first female president.
In what he said was part of the reform process, former President Mulatu Teshome (PhD), submitted his resignation speech to the parliament. His first term would have ended next September since the law allowed him to serve for six years.
On the same day the joint house elected Sahle-Work Zewde (Amb), a well-known diplomat, as Head of State.
She is the only serving female Head of State in Africa. The prime minister’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, tweeted that “in a patriarchal society such as ours, the appointment of a female Head of State not only sets the standard for the future but also normalizes women as decision-makers in public life”.
In her sworn speech she amplified that cooperation and working for a common agenda is to be expected by the political parties. President Sahle-Work also promised to work hard to make gender equality a reality in Ethiopia.
President Sahle-Work, 68, has served in different government offices before she became a diplomat. Her bio presented at the parliament indicated that President Sahle-Work is the second female ambassador after Yodit Emmeru (Amb). She has served as an ambassador for Ethiopia in several countries.
She began her diplomatic career as ambassador to Senegal in 1989 with responsibilities in neighboring African countries and later went to Djibouti before eventually serving as ambassador to France, where she had previously studied. She also held a number of UN positions, including head of peace-building in the Central African Republic.
Sahle-Work was UN under-secretary general and special representative of the secretary general to the African Union before becoming president.
MulatuTeshome had served as president since 2013.

The Federal police are looking into the audit reports of 33 companies, some of which had gone for years without being investigated. Twenty of these companies are large tax payers, most of which are giant construction companies. The investigations, which are said to be looking into half a billion birr worth of possible tax evasion, have been separated into three categories.
The police and Office of the Attorney General (OAG) began their investigation this past week. A source confirmed that most of the cases are going to be finished within a month.
The first category is looking closely at hundreds of lost cash register machines. This is becoming a major problem for revenue collection. The investigating team is working to make the people issuing receipts without transactions accountable, which sources in the enquiry said were the most controversial.
“Police have not been able to arrest these individuals who took machines because they gave false addresses and disappeared or the machines have been lost,” the source told Capital.
Another group of people are said to have been declaring incorrect amount of tax. It is possible criminal charges will not be filed against these people, sources disclosed.
The third category involves audit reports revealing intention to evade taxes. This category is most likely to be prosecuted.
The receipts have been printed by the lost cash register machines for consecutive years. The Authority has been unable to trace the machines and some of the individuals who issued them. Companies have been discovered to be holding these deceptive receipts which the authority says do not involve actual transactions.
Capital was not able to obtain comments from the Ministry of Revenue or Police because the investigation is ongoing.

Mesenbet Shenkut, who is well known in the financial industry, has become the first female president in the history of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (AACCSA).
During the 14th General Assembly held at the Intercontinental Hotel on Thursday October 25, AACCSA members elected Mesenbet Shenkut to serve for the coming two years.
Mesenbet, who served as founding president for Abay Bank and before that as vice president of the Development Bank of Ethiopia, emerged victorious over Salahadin Khalifa, at the occasion which was attended by 1,050 members of AACCSA
Wednesday, the city Sectoral Association elected Abebaw Mekonen to serve as president for another term. He also automatically becomes vice president of the city chamber.
The other elected board members include: Aster Solomon, Kibret Abebe, Sara Yirga, Netsanet Lemmesa, Bekele Tsegaye, Tesfaye Negash, Abebayehu Girma, Aklilu Gebre and Ferezer Sieme.

Ethiopian Road Authority (ERA) awarded eight contracts for road construction projects to four local and five foreign companies. The agreements are worth 13.3 billion birr and will include 749km of asphalt roads in the Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, Amhara, Somali and SNNP regions.
The projects which are part of the second GTP are explicitly financed by the Ethiopian government. The Authority is expected to sign seven additional agreements worth more than 10 billion birr in the coming weeks.
At the signing of the agreement, last week, Habtamu Tegegne Director General of ERA stressed the need for completing the projects on time.
“The projects are going to add value to the socio-economic lives of the residents,” said Tegene, “when we make quality roads on time taxpayers will be satisfied.”