AS RAMAPHOSA STARES VACANTLY, IT DAWNS ON HIM THAT HE’S A PAWN OF THE NEOLIBERAL OLD GUARD

Oh dear. President Cyril Ramaphosa looks like he is realising something devastating at the most inconvenient of times. His recent live appearances speak volumes – mainly, his blank stare.

“You’re not the main character, sir. You’re a useful idiot,” it says.

But what did he expect? He’s a politically connected, small-scale billionaire obsessed with accumulating wealth, even at the expense of the exploited working class. A man at the behest of neoliberals – the kind with a predilection for viewing the majority of South Africans through the same lens for centuries; the kind Ramaphosa will do anything to gain approval from.

With post-apartheid South Africa having more mouths to feed, many old-moneyed folk – whose fortune was the proceeds of dealing with the state – have become jaundiced by the shrinking slice of tender pie.

Affirmative action has been the gut punch. From it, black elites have emerged, with whom the billionaire apartheid underbelly has had to share.

To the old guard, Ramaphosa’s position on injustices like the Marikana massacre and the fallout of the July riots proved his grit. You see, he has a general contempt for the working class. Look no further than his domestic worker at his million-dollar Phala Phala business. She continues to live in squalor at a nearby informal settlement.

Industry needed a man of such calibre. Ramaphosa looked like a worthy intermediary to convince the masses that big business is a gateway to the promised land.

Seeing his eagerness, the liberal elite plied him with nonsensical idealisms of a hero reminiscent of 1994, rescuing the state from capture. In return, he opened his arms to their designs. Tendai Matsika