ZUMA EXIT Voters are watching if ANC has plan to fix increasing inequality
The “new normal” has arrived, with its fair share of fanfare, secrecy and speculation in tow. The postponement of the state of the nation address and a scheduled ANC national executive committee meeting due to “constructive” engagements between Cyril Ramaphosa and Jacob Zuma attest to it.
In this milieu, sensation and fake news trump fact, and transparency is overtaken by backroom dealing and negotiation. Just like Emmerson Mnangagwa and his generals in 2017, Ramaphosa and his “Nasrec train” of officials are charged with the exit negotiations of a leader who has overstayed his welcome. A leader who has lost the political “cover” often afforded to leaders of African liberation movements.
With the attempt not to “embarrass” the leader, the expectant mood in the media fraternity received a sobering reminder; the ANC works on its own clock. Ramaphosa knows that hasty actions may alienate key segments of the base he needs to consolidate.
The report-back by Ramaphosa on his engagements with the incumbent president was somewhat of an anticlimax to weeks of speculation. Accustomed as SA is to latenight or early-morning announcements, many stayed up beyond set bedtimes, anxious not to miss the news of the impending “transition”. The newsroom midnight oil burnt brightly in anticipation of the biggest scoop since Thabo Mbeki called citizens to their TV sets one Sunday evening to inform them of the Irene decision of the ANC to dismiss him. But nothing.
Are we missing something? Much like 10 years ago it is implied that the exit of the man from Nkandla (and the erudite Mbeki then), is the “blue pill” that the socioeconomic landscape needs. Very few people are naive enough to believe that, but somehow South Africans have convinced themselves that the journey to economic recovery involves a stop-over at Mahlamba Ndlopfu, for Zuma to disembark.
Such notions and the cheerleading that Ramaphosa is getting from the media and market need much more critical reflection. What kind of sentiment, value and ethos does this “new normal” under Ramaphosa mobilise, and for what ends?
It must be the greatest coincidence that Ramaphosa leads the ANC in the year SA is remembering the man at whose feet he learnt much in the 1990s: Nelson Mandela. Madiba’s legacy evokes as much divergence in sentiment as Ramaphosa does. Little wonder that the message of renewal of the ANC and SA has an underlying drive to go back to the hope, optimism and naivety of the 1990s.
The time for this nostalgic bubble to burst has come. Despite much in terms of social delivery, SA has become more unequal and less cohesive than what was hoped in the ’90s. How then does such a message, in the absence of a clear articulation of the trade-offs, plans and pain associated with changes that should take place, respond to the challenges?
That is a question the ANC will have to answer. In responding it would do well to acknowledge that its voters are becoming impatient with the ethical, moral, strategic and ideological decline of the party. To reverse this trend requires intervention in the market and state to confront the fault lines of social, political and economic life. SA needs details on what ANC policies, programmes and plans will do to confront this more rapidly and with greater urgency than in the past 23 years. Much of this will require confronting issues of land, the economy, race relations and the functioning of governance structures in public and private sectors.
TO REVERSE THIS TREND REQUIRES INTERVENTION IN MARKET AND STATE TO CONFRONT THE FAULT LINES OF SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE
Can this be done by merging “radical economic transformation” with a “new deal” based on marketfriendly policy, underpinned by Mandelaesque notions of reconciliation, social cohesion and nation building?
Sometimes “justice” is mentioned too. This may have been a relevant and wellplaced strategy in the 1990s, but in 2018 it may be an “application” for political irrelevance.
The real test for Ramaphosa’s presidency is not necessarily the urgency with which he deals with Zuma, but reconciling the contradiction of bullish business sentiment and a radical grocery list of policies he has to implement. That will certainly be a tough juggling act for the “new normal”.