Ramaphosa must grab the buffalo by the horns
Under Robert Mugabe land distribution in Zimbabwe benefited mainly the Zanu-PF elite, not the peasants. Is the balance of forces in the ANC and the threat of losing votes to the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance in 2019 compelling the party’s president Cyril Ramaphosa to emphasise “expropriation without compensation”?
Slogans, songs and rhetoric to appease the masses have nothing to do with implementation.
At Polokwane in 2007, Jacob Zuma won because he and the left (Blade Nzimande, Zwelinzima Vavi, Julius Malema) duped the nation into believing that Zuma would be more left than Thabo Mbeki and would ban labour brokers and e-tolls, and implement the national democratic revolution (NDR).
There is no such thing as a “radical” or “moderate” NDR, a point Joel Netshitenzhe, Pallo Jordan and Mbeki have emphasised. All Zuma’s “left turns” came to zero when he focused on pick-pocketing the public purse for a “better life for his family”, the Guptas, Roy Moodley, Thoshan Panday and the Russian mafia.
Although Ramaphosa will be a better leader than both Zuma and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, he is a black liberal and ideologically not opposed to market forces. When Khulubuse Zuma and Zondwa Mandela left Aurora mineworkers destitute, Ramaphosa was protecting his profits in Lonmin.
Speaking in Groutville, he praised Chief Albert Luthuli as “father” of the Freedom Charter, which clearly states that “land shall be distributed among those who work it”. In KwaDukuza, ANC-led municipalities have further alienated Africans from the economy by giving land to Vivian Reddy. From Ballito to Zinkwazi not a single African owns a piece of land along the coast. How will Ramaphosa intervene?
The same municipality destroyed Groutville peasant farmers. When Ballito Junction and Lifestyle Malls were upgraded, there was not a single African trading in them.
What will happen to farmers’ debts if there is no compensation for land? What will the ANC do to avoid land being given to the “political class” and not to those who work it? What about mines and banks as per the Freedom Charter? Will the ANC allow workers to have a stake in mining and manufacturing industries? What is Ramaphosa’s take on the Guptas and Cash Paymaster Services?
History will judge Ramaphosa on what he does, not on rhetoric. Under Zuma, he lacked Luthuli’s courageous attribute of holding a buffalo bull by its horns.