Enough with the theatrics, Mr President. Crack the whip and fashion your legacy
Ramaphosa constrained by deep desire to be loved by all
Whoever whispered into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ear that he should return to SA in light of the loadshedding crisis gave him bad advice.
First, there are so many political leaders, senior executives and operational managers appointed to deal with load-shedding.
They all earn huge salaries for the jobs we expect them to do. His role could have been advisory or oversight, and that doesn’t require him to be physically inside SA.
Second, the UN session he skipped dealt with issues that are so central to the exact challenges that SA and Africa are faced with.
The rising cost of living has created a food crisis for millions of families here and elsewhere. The instability of energy supply needs no further introduction in SA. We have seen the cost of the climate emergency in KZN to the economy, to crucial infrastructure and human life.
These issues were on the UN agenda, including geopolitical wars and the old debate on the transformation of the UN Security Council.
SA cannot be absent from these discussions, especially if it is serious about pulling global solidarity, aid and debt concessions for SA and the rest of Africa so that we can be best positioned to resolve these challenges ourselves and according to our own terms. Ramaphosa missed this opportunity.
The deployment of international relations minister Naledi Pandor was wrong. She’s not a president and cannot make conclusive statements and commitments with other member states in the absence of the president.
Third, Ramaphosa’s presidency has been filled with so much theatrics rather than actual work – and South Africans are beginning to pick up on this gap in his leadership. Ramaphosa wants to be seen and perceived to be working rather than doing the actual work.
So much effort is spent on him writing and delivering speeches with well-knitted sentences without being followed up by actual and tangible transformation in the lives of people he keeps promising to change.
Poverty, load-shedding, youth unemployment, state corruption, vaccinations and investments are all challenges he made to appear as though they’ll be quick and easy to solve under his presidency. It’s now the end of September 2022 and all these issues have got worse.
A worse challenge he has now is his deteriorating legitimacy as a respectable leader who can possibly pull SA out of every possible crisis that was created under his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
The Phala Phala scandal is slowly depreciating both the political and business confidence in him – and the matter is about to get ugly as the days and months go by while he’s silent.
In essence, the decision to come back was terrible. It was another PR exercise among many that have not delivered any productive changes in the past. The public is beginning to get irritated at his performances. He seems to be unable to turn around this continuing slide to the bottom.
Ramaphosa needs to do urgent re-evaluation of many aspects around his presidency if he’s still interested in leading SA and leaving a good legacy. He must do actual work that transforms SA for the better. He must step on people’s toes without fear. He must be willing to make decisions on the economy and state that he thinks will take us somewhere, even if it means there are casualties in the process.
For him to think that his job as president is to smile at everyone, and seek to be liked and perceived positively by everyone is a strategy that won’t work. He needs to upgrade his international footprint on progressive questions of the Left and speak loudly and firmly against all forms of imperialism – as expected of every African leader who is concerned about decolonisation.
This was the trademark of every leadership of the liberation movement across the world and he seems to be going against that heritage.
He must also stop speaking with a forked tongue whenever he meets Western leaders like US president Joe Biden. SA is not going to abandon coal for renewable energy to please imperialists. If he dares to do that, he will meet the full might of the working class in the streets.
* Dr Mzileni is a research associate in the faculty of humanities at Nelson Mandela University