The Zuma ghost walks, and Cyril freezes in fear

Ramaphosa could take some lessons from US President Donald Trump on articulating his vision more confidently and implementing it more decisively. But the MK ball and chain is holding him back, writes Vrye Weekblad’s Max du Preez.
5 mins read

The MK ghost is the ball and chain around Cyril Ramaphosa’s leg, preventing him from acting decisively – just as was the case with the former radical economic transformation faction. And yet, it’s obvious what Ramaphosa’s priorities as president of South Africa should be:

  • He must take firm and decisive action to intervene in the deteriorating provinces, metros and towns governed by the ANC.
  • He must throw his party’s Cold War mentality out the window and form a new, pragmatic foreign policy that is more palatable to the US and other Western countries.
  • He must declare war on corruption, tenderpreneurship and rent-seeking, and immediately dismiss any minister or senior official suspected of these.
  • He must crack the whip and put an end to the grotesque inefficiency and wastefulness in government departments and state-owned enterprises, while ruthlessly cutting bureaucratic red tape.
  • He must radically reform the existing systems of BEE and preferential procurement to achieve the actual goals of these policies rather than benefiting only a handful of cadres and opportunistic accomplices.
  • He must send a clear and unequivocal message to his party and its alliance partners that economic growth is the top priority and the fastest remedy for unemployment, and that the old socialist dreams of a national democratic revolution belong in the 1980s.

I have no doubt that Ramaphosa understands all of this, but he is like a hare frozen in the headlights of a hunter’s torch.

That hunter is his old nemesis, Jacob Zuma, and Zuma’s MK Party.

Look, if someone else were leading the ANC, the party might not have accepted the election defeat of May 2024 with such grace. Instead, we might now be saddled with a coalition government of the ANC, MK and the EFF. Shock, horror.

We also wouldn’t have the healthy co-operation agreements that now exist between the state and leading business leaders. We are already reaping the benefits of this partnership in the areas of infrastructure, rail transport, ports and energy.

Moreover, I can’t think of any other political leader who could represent South Africa as successfully as Ramaphosa does today on international stages – including chairing the G20.

But Msholozi remains his kryptonite.

Appeasement is not an option

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) are the two provinces with the largest economies and were once ANC strongholds. However, the ANC’s support there dropped sharply in last year’s election, which is the main reason why the party barely achieved 40% national support.

The blame for this lies with the provincial leadership.

In Gauteng, the most urbanised region in the country, the ANC government under premier Panyaza Lesufi is utterly hopeless, as reflected in the failures of hospitals, education, services, and the Joburg and Tshwane metros.

Governance and services in KZN are equally rotten, but there, the ANC leadership has passively stood by while the MK Party grew in popularity.

Efforts, particularly by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, to tackle the leadership in Gauteng and KZN completely flopped last week. It’s going to be business as usual.

The fear is that any ANC leader or structure that feels slighted might defect to the MK Party, which could eventually lead to MK growing outside KZN and becoming larger than the ANC.

This is indeed a serious danger, but as Ramaphosa and his inner circle learnt during the battle against the RET faction, appeasement and avoiding confrontation are not the answer.

The ANC leadership in Gauteng is also the strongest voice against the current government of national unity (GNU), of which the DA is the ANC’s most prominent partner.

The allergy to the GNU stems partly from a black ethnic nationalism, but it also coincides with hostility towards Ramaphosa himself, particularly in Gauteng.

Mbalula admitted a few days ago that discussions in the ANC’s national executive committee about the party’s future in Gauteng and KZN were disrupted by debates about who will succeed Ramaphosa when his party leadership ends in 2027.

This topic will again be the subtext when the ANC holds its mid-term national general council later this year. Some elements in the ANC already want to oust Ramaphosa at that point.

The problem for Ramaphosa’s opponents is that he is still far more respected by the public than the ANC itself, and there is no clear, viable contender who can challenge him. This might change in the next two years, but at the moment, it doesn’t seem like the discredited Paul Mashatile, the ANC’s deputy leader, or a political clown like Mbalula have enough support to challenge Ramaphosa.

In my considered opinion, Zuma would not have had the space and opportunity to grow his support and eventually establish the MK Party if Ramaphosa had acted more decisively and strategically against him and his RET faction in the past.

The corrupt Zuma and his lieutenants were treated with kid gloves, even obsequiously, out of fear that they would split the ANC – but they ended up doing so anyway. The Ramaphosa administration even bent the law to get Zuma out of prison and appointed many RET figures to senior positions.

There is no better example of this than Arthur Fraser. Fraser was appointed by Zuma as head of the State Security Agency, which he then used as a personal protection tool for Zuma, including alleged corruption. Ramaphosa, fully aware of Fraser’s apparent abuses and alleged corruption, appointed him as head of correctional services instead of prosecuting him.

And then it was Fraser himself who stabbed him in the back with the Phala Phala scandal. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

Which brings me to Donald Trump.

The foreign policy question

Trump is a reckless narcissist who sees himself as a reigning monarch. But even in the US and elsewhere in the world, there is a grudging and mostly unspoken respect among even his fiercest critics that Trump gets things done; that he is a man of action. This is increasingly rare among Western-oriented heads of state.

I believe Ramaphosa will command similar respect, here and internationally, if he articulates his vision more confidently and then implements it decisively, no matter how many dogs bark. South Africans are tired of laissez-faire governance, hollow political rhetoric and promises, while people suffer and our tax money is stolen.

(Fortunately, we have a good constitution and are a constitutional democracy, so abuses like Trump’s string of executive orders are not a possibility here.)

The first thing I think Ramaphosa should do when he returns from the World Economic Forum in Davos is to instruct his cabinet to end the Cold War flirtation with Russia, China, Cuba and Iran.

We must remain part of the Brics group of nations, and can still advocate international non-alignment, but the demonstrated hero-worship of dictators, frequent visits and war games with their navy and military must stop.

Trump is a powerful bully. We don’t have to kiss his feet, but we shouldn’t give him any reason to want to intimidate us – after all, we’re just a “shithole” country in his eyes.

Ramaphosa can leverage people who have relationships with Trump, like Johann Rupert, Elon Musk, Ernie Els and Gary Player, to make our case to him. And, fortunately, we now have an ambassador in Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, who is smart, pragmatic, and strategic.

Our foreign policy must be principled and aligned with our own constitution, but above all, it must serve the interests of the citizens of South Africa.

Top image: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Photograph: Gallo Images/ER Lombard. Illustration: Currency.

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Max du Preez

Editor in chief of Vrye Weekblad and founding editor of the original Vrye Weekblad.

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