Ramaphosa restores confidence

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his second State of the Nation Address on Thursday night. The expectations were as great as they were varied.

South Africa has high expectations of itself, a myth-like consciousness founded in the political miracle of 1994, buttressed by the unprecedentedly successful hosting of the first ever soccer World Cup on African soil in 2010.

The harsh reality since, entrenched by almost a decade of industrial-scale kleptocracy, has done much to both depress its citizenry and lessen its standing in the world.

Ramaphosa has taken it upon himself to reverse this. He coined the phrase New Dawn only to have to hear it start to ring hollow in all our ears. On Thursday night he restored its timbre in the slow, methodical and inexorable fashion he has made his own.

Cynics and naysayers will point to insufficient detail given to the environment and water security, among others, but far more will be grateful for the reaffirmation of the independence of the National Prosecuting Authority and the creation of a specialised state capture unit.

They will look with gratitude to the summation of the crisis that has beset Eskom and the beginnings of a real plan to fix it. They will be happy about the quiet resolution that will be brought to matters as diverse as SOE governance and sanitation at schools.

For a man with a paper-thin majority in his own party, faced by often rancorous opposition politicians, Ramaphosa delivered a masterclass of keeping everyone inside the tent.

He ended not with Thuma

Mina, but a reference to Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech which was pregnant with symbolism – both an injunction to citizens to serve and give notice to the world that South Africa dearly deserves to take up its rightful place once more.