Can Ramaphosa deliver South Africans to the promised land?
LATE at night in a bleak, deserted office in the African darkness three decades ago, a young black union leader sought help from this white foreign correspondent.
Cyril Ramaphosa was crafting an announcement that established unionism irreversibly in South Africa’s critical gold mining industry, three years after it first became legal for black gold miners to join a union.
We worked to refine the wording and tell the world of a pending strike while the fog of tear gas hung over the black townships around Johannesburg as the government violently battled protests against white minority rule.
The strike, led by the general secretary Ramaphosa, was the first by the two-yearold black National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and set the-then activist on course to the top of the nation.
Today, the charismatic 65-year-old former union leader heads the ruling African National Congress after his election last month in succession to President Jacob Zuma.
He is potentially in line to inherit the mantle of South Africa’s first black president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela as president of the country.
But, as South Africa this year marks 70 years since apartheid racial segregation became state policy, can he reverse rampant corruption, crime, and cronyism and the tragedy of a mineral-rich country whose citizens have seen little benefit from democracy?
Mr Zuma’s presidency – during which time he amassed considerable wealth
– was marked by constant controversy over his lifestyle as a polygamist and allegations of money-laundering and rape.
He faced growing calls in the ANC to resign over corruption scandals, including ties to the powerful Gupta family who deny claims of using friendship with him to influence government decisions.
Mr Ramaphosa’s election has been long delayed since South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, favoured him as his successor but was foiled by the party.
The son of a policeman and born in the sprawling black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg, the lawyer, union leader, and now tycoon could, with a fair wind, change the course of a potentially wealthy nation.
He is being counted on to improve the lot of blacks, many of whom live in apartheid-era townships in conditions not much changed since white rule.
His negotiating skills were honed in these early days of forming the union for black mineworkers which transformed workers’ rights. He was the ANC’s chief negotiator in the momentous talks with the last white president, FW de Klerk, that ended apartheid.
And during his years in the political wilderness, Mr Ramaphosa became one of the country’s richest businessmen under an ANC policy of assigning officials to business sectors as traditionally white-run firms gave stakes to blacks to create a new middle class. Forbes magazine estimates his worth at some £330 million.
That combination of union and private sector experience could be a benefit in bringing these sectors and the government together for the benefit of the country. However, there is criticism of his wealth and questions remain as to whether he understands the challenges facing ordinary people or is simply part of crony capitalism. An incident when he bid more than £1m for a buffalo and her calf is still remembered, even though he apologised.
Can he turn round a country strangled by endemic corruption? Mr Ramaphosa is acclaimed as the saviour of the nation of some 56 million people, which is 80 per cent black and 10 per cent white. Many assume he will become president in elections next year when Mr Zuma ends his second five-year term, the limit under the constitution.
The financial markets seem to think so. The South African rand jumped earlier this month on what turned out to be false reports Mr Zuma had resigned, opening the way for Mr Ramaphosa.
In his first speech after his election, he promised to fight corruption and overhaul a stagnant economy that has led to record-high unemployment.
The potential is certainly there: South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum, gold and chromium and a trove of other minerals.
However, his party is so damaged by corruption and infighting, and by the erosion of democratic institutions and the growth of state control that he may struggle to win the role, which is decided by elections in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament. The ANC itself may struggle to get a majority.
If Mr Zuma remains in office for his full term to next year the country faces bruising dogfights between him and Mr Ramaphosa in the coming 18 months.
The new party leader must also work with Zuma loyalists said to be part of a patronage network he needs to clean up, and who were elected to half of the other top ANC posts.
Observers can only hope and pray he can create the rainbow nation of equality that archbishop Desmond Tutu hoped for as apartheid ended in 1991.
He was the ANC’s chief negotiator in talks with FW de Klerk that ended apartheid