Fresh challenges for South Africa

AS WE look back on what was a gruelling year – in almost every regard – the reality is that 2018 will be defined by the closing events of 2017. Cyril Ramaphosa won a narrow victory at Nasrec over a rival faction that in everything but name would have been a continuation of the political era before it.

His victory was welcomed by the international markets, specifically in the buoyancy of the rand, but he will have his plate full arresting this country’s decline: creating jobs where there are none, kick-starting an economy that is at best stagnant and bringing the kleptocrats to boot.

It’s a tall order for any leader, but even more so when you realise that Ramaphosa has become president of the ANC only, not president of the country. His task becomes even more invidious, negotiating the torturous reality of two centres of power between Luthuli House and the Union Buildings.

One of his first tasks in the new year will be to appoint a new national director of public prosecutions after the Pretoria High Court threw out the appointment of Shaun Abrahams, who has worked manfully to earn his moniker of Shaun the Sheep, the most determinedly invisible and ineffective of our country’s top prosecutors at a time when the evidence is piling up all around him of state capture and corruption.

The court ruled specifically that Zuma could not appoint Abrahams’ successor for the simple reason that it would be a conflict of interest since one of the first orders of business will involve recharging the president on 783 counts of corruption – to say nothing of the balance of the NDPP’s in-tray that pertains to Zuma.

This puts a daunting weight upon Ramaphosa within weeks of taking over the party – and less than a year and a half before the scheduled general elections.

We are in for more change – that much is certain. What is most important is how this change is managed in what is an incredibly precarious and potentially disastrous time.

But all that’s still to come.

As we wind down the clock, we wish you all a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year. Thank you for your support.