Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa has a singular opportunity to avert a looming calamity by acting boldly – something he has woefully failed to do in the past – against recalcitrant and belligerent comrades who continue to impede his ability to govern effectively, writes Tebogo Khaas.
There’s a funny yet tragic scene in one of the Austin Powers movie franchises, where Mike Myers runs over a security guard with a steamroller. What makes this horrific act funny is that the steamroller looks to be moving at about 3km/h, and the security guard (who is at least 10 metres away) just stands there yelling, “STOP!” for what feels like 10 seconds before he is, inevitably, squashed.
I thought of this epic scene recently when contemplating the looming societal and economic calamity lumbering in slow motion should President Cyril Ramaphosa persist with the chimera of “ANC unity” for the remainder of his presidential term with the 2024 elections providing a litmus test for him and the ANC.
Unity-at-all-cost
Ramaphosa’s relentless pursuit of unity-at-all-cost within his party is a self-reinforcing vicious cycle that counterintuitively perpetuates ANC internal tensions and misgovernance of affairs of state. It is being used by his detractors to blackmail and paralyse him from taking decisive action against corruption in government.
While many people can see the looming dangers of Ramaphosa’s slow action or lack thereof, the key to avoiding the fiasco this represents for his presidency is both simple and obvious: He must deal decisively with recalcitrant and belligerent comrades who continue to impede his ability to govern effectively before it’s too late.
Very little has changed politically since the ANC sent party envoys to ask then president Jacob Zuma to vacate office a few months after Ramaphosa was elected ANC president. Although a grudging Zuma was ejected from Mahlamba Ndlopfu, the disgraced former president has not exited the political stage and has become a constant thorn in Ramaphosa’s side.
Today’s ANC is a tribe in turmoil, devoted to self-contradictions and self-immolation. The party, which celebrates its 111 year anniversary in Mangaung this weekend, often boasts about being midwives to our constitutional dispensation. This is despite the fact that the ANC often demands their public representatives to pledge fealty to party edicts, deleterious as these may be to our democratic state’s foundational ideals, rather than to the nation’s Constitution to which they have sworn allegiance.
While many party leaders preach unity in public – this much will be on display during this weekend’s ANC January 8 statement, they plunge and twist daggers in the hearts of their political nemeses with reckless abandon. They will continue to preach ANC renewal while many privately admit to their preference of the prevailing chaotic, unstable political landscape which serves their personal, venal interests.
Notwithstanding, there are clear signs that in newly minted ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, Ramaphosa will have some breathing space as Mbalula is wont to fearlessly confront those who transgress party edicts. Mbalula has already made telling pronouncements against senior party members who often contradicted Ramaphosa and ANC national executive committee (NEC) edicts publicly in the past.
A clear focus on state matters
Should Mbalula succeed in his efforts to stymie the chaotic internal political environment that Ramaphosa endured since his initial election as party leader five years ago, the president will be better placed to focus on state matters without being second guessed by his Cabinet ministers and delinquent leaders as has been the case in the past.
And never has the legitimacy and integrity of our democratic order been so undermined and threatened than it currently is by Zuma and a coterie of his legal enablers who harangue Ramaphosa and cause anarchy in their selfish pursuits. It’s almost as if this anarchy is choreographed as a shrinking cast of corrupt actors tear into the edifices of our criminal justice system.
While the energy crisis South Africans endure must rank highest on Ramaphosa’s priority list post Nasrec 2.0, consequential foreign policy choices must be made. In a highly fractured global political framework, Ramaphosa must pronounce his government’s apparent preference for strategic ambiguity in its foreign policy doctrine.
Strategic ambiguity, while useful if a country has contrary foreign and domestic policy goals or if it wants to take advantage of risk aversion to abet a deterrence strategy, is generally considered diabolical as is it often yields the result influenced by adverse foreign political pressures that are antithetical to our national interests and incongruent with our democratic state’s espoused constitutional and ethical values.
Reports of a Russian cargo ship docking at one of our naval ports to conduct business under the cover of darkness are concerning. There linger questions on what the cargo was and if South Africa could be complicit in sustaining Russia’s war with Ukraine by providing military supplies. This has elicited strong responses from some of South Africa’s terrified allies, especially the United States.
Ramaphosa, notwithstanding the fact that his credibility has been eroded on the subject, must provide unambiguous strategic plans on how his administration intends vanquishing the energy crisis that impedes South Africa’s economic recovery and stick to the plan.
South Africa deserves a government that is unencumbered by internal party turmoil and foreign policy considerations that do not serve our national interests.
While we may have reason to be terrified by gloomy economic prospects and the attendant prospects of social instability, we should not be petrified.
Thanks to a newly elected and favourable top leadership, Ramaphosa has a singular opportunity to redeem himself and avert a looming calamity by reasserting himself and acting boldly – something he has woefully failed to do in the past.
– Tebogo Khaas is a political commentator and chair of Public Interest SA, an organisation that seeks to advance constitutionalism by, inter alia, exposing abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by those entrusted with the exercise of public power.
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