Ramaphosa’s fawning shouldn’t be a surprise; hobnobbing with thugs is nothing new for the ANC
Iwas going to write about the daily struggles of ordinary people as they try to cope with the rising cost of living, soaring fuel prices and having to deal with an incompetent, uncaring bureaucracy. But President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bungling over the catastrophe in Ukraine keeps getting my goat.
It’s reported that he was in parliament this week, pontificating on the matter. I’m not sure which parliament, for the National Assembly is no more.
They allowed it to be burnt down. It’s still hard to wrap one’s mind around the fact that parliament, symbol of our democracy, is gone, charred to cinders. But we should be grateful for small mercies. Unlike with the cataclysmic events in July last year, this time a scapegoat has been found and paraded.
As for Ukraine, it’s about time Ramaphosa’s advisers did their job. They should tell him to shut up. He’s embarrassing not only himself, but the country he pretends to lead. He apparently told MPs he wasn’t about to blame Vladimir Putin for the slaughter of women and children — not even women in labour are spared — and the wanton destruction of infrastructure.
It’s all Nato’s fault apparently. It forced Putin’s hand. The alliance poked the Russian bear by expanding eastwards. But did no-one tell Ramaphosa that Ukraine is a sovereign nation? It’s free to determine its own destiny. In case Ramaphosa isn’t aware, it’s what the ANC and many others fought for so many years to achieve: the right to decide their own future. Why should Russia have a veto over Ukraine’s future?
The whole idea of SA as a mediator in this conflict is simply hilarious. In the first place, the impression that the country is teeming with mediation expertise is a bit overdone, if not totally bogus. It was this false perception that helped to catapult Ramaphosa to power; as the mastermind behind the Codesa miracle, the argument went, he was the person best suited to unite SA’s fractious society. That was his selling point.
Well, we seem to have gotten ourselves something of a dud. Truth is, Codesa succeeded not because of any individual’s brilliance. It was not so much any threat posed by the ANC but the upheaval in the global power balance, especially the implosion of the Soviet Union and the West’s reaction to it, that ultimately broke apartheid’s back.
It robbed the Nats of the communist bogey that had served them so well. So they sought a deal that would leave them holding onto some of their spoils. We rightly celebrated the end of apartheid, but, in hindsight, handing the country to the ANC has been a bit like throwing pearls before swine. Never in our wildest dreams could we have foreseen the destruction it was about to wreak.
Mugabe, Castro, Mengistu and now Putin — the ANC has never met an autocrat it didn’t like
But how can Ramaphosa have the gumption to offer to mediate in a faraway, violent conflict when he can’t even bring peace between warring factions in his own party? The country is in a mess. The economy is tottering. Brazen criminals are on the loose. He can’t get the trains to run on time. Well, you know, the tracks have been stolen.
What, then, is your cachet? Why should leaders in such a high-stakes conflict — Russia is a nuclear power, nogal — place their hopes or future in your hands when you can’t even get your own house in order? Is that chutzpah or plain naïveté? Well, sweep your own backyard first, then maybe we can talk.
In any case, there’s no war needing mediation by anyone in Ukraine. Mediation can be appropriate when two or more countries go head to head. No such situation exists in Ukraine. Russia has invaded a peaceful country that was minding its own business. It should get out and stop butchering innocent civilians.
It is telling, isn’t it, that Lindiwe Sisulu can accuse Ramaphosa to his face of being a liar and get away with it; yet Naledi Pandor earns a reprimand for justifiably issuing a statement demanding that Russia get its murderous military out of Ukraine. Pandor is on the right side of history.
Last week Ramaphosa issued a statement thanking “his excellency president Vladimir Putin” for taking a call. Without even touching on the merits of the conversation, it is the grovelling that sticks in the craw.
This is not the leader of one country speaking to another as an equal. It is a minion speaking to his superior. Putin gets an effusive “thank you” for finding the time to take the call, whereas ambassadors representing the EU and Germany — SA’s biggest trading partners — struggle to get an audience with the president. His love for Putin obviously trumps SA’s interests.
It’s no surprise that the ANC is enamoured of Putin. The party has never met an autocrat that it didn’t like. It enjoyed the hospitality of Ethiopia’s ruthless Mengistu Haile Mariam even as he was killing his enemies and allowing almost 1-million people to starve to death. Fidel Castro is another ANC role model. Robert Mugabe clung to power thanks to the ANC’s generosity. And in exile, party leaders were not above bumping off their own comrades. SA should be grateful that the ANC never shot its way into power. Otherwise a one-party state could have been our fate.
In the end, this is not about Ukraine. Unfortunately, it reveals our leaders for who they really are. Do we want to be on the side of morality and decency, or are we comfortable hobnobbing with murderous thugs and bullies?