A massive relief, but ...

My reaction to the ascendancy of Cyril Ramaphosa to the presidency of South Africa was, like almost everybody else’s, huge relief.

A great weight, building up slowly over nine years in my subconscious mind, was suddenly removed, giving me unexpected elation. Let’s celebrate. But let’s keep our eyes open.

We must not forget that Zuma was the product of the rot in the ANC, not the cause of it – even if he was maybe the most rotten of all.

Ramaphosa won the ANC presidency in December by a very narrow margin. He could easily have lost and the Zuma faction retained its corrosive grip on our lives. But once he won he moved with admirable, if not astonishing, speed, skill and decisiveness.

Before we could blink, he had kicked out Zuma, got himself voted in as SA president and let loose the forces of justice to pursue the Guptas, Zuma’s dreadful son and associated crooks and looters.

Ramaphosa played a very important part in the ending of apartheid and the dawn of democracy. He could be a charming, very skilful negotiator. He could also be ruthless. He was certainly behind much of the dreadful “People’s War” and especially the horrible violence of the 1987 miners’ strike, when the political terrain had shifted to the trade unions.

Nothing endeared him more to me than his meeting in December last year with the leaders of our indigenous people, the Bushmen and the Khoi at the Union Buildings. This was a graceful act, worthy of Nelson Mandela.

However, his strong support of Sadtu, the teachers’ union mainly responsible for the harm to black education is very worrying. So is his backing of expropriation without compensation.

His State of the Nation address was good in its aim to cleanse and reduce our bloated, corrupt government and reform our justice system. But my heart sank at his support of the awful minimum wage, which will worsen poverty, unemployment and inequality.

He also supports National Health Insurance which will remove the only functioning parts of our failing health service.

To what extent does Ramaphosa believe in these destructive policies and to what extent are they forced on him by ANC factions he is still beholden to? I don’t know.

I wish him well, for his sake and ours.