What Cyril and Jacob share

100 DAYS: SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PRESIDENTS ARE STARTLING

Both leaders were hailed as a Mr Fixit after a time of significant turmoil.

Aglance at the first 100 days in office of former state president Jacob Zuma and incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa reveals that both men experienced high levels of popularity, accompanied by a sense of renewal during this time.

There are several other striking similarities.

In 2009, Zuma, like Ramaphosa today, had the support of alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and influential trade union Cosatu.

Zuma and Ramaphosa both placed significant focus on education and jobs in their early days.

Both were viewed favourably as men who could fix the economy because of their openness, as opposed to their predecessors.

First and foremost, glaringly, their victories left the governing party deeply divided.

Both men strode into broken economies. At the start of Zuma’s first term, the results of the global economic crisis were tangible, while Ramaphosa has to deal with poor governance, policy direction and corruption.

Both faced pressure from the far left to make radical policy shifts, including calls for the nationalisation of mines in 2009, to land expropriation without compensation, which has now become a Ramaphosa issue. The similarities continue. Zuma announced the Industrial Policy Action Plan, promised 500 000 new jobs in a year (the goal was not reached), ran his privately funded Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust and would, unannounced, walk into shanty towns, rural villages or townships visiting schools or local municipalities.

Ramaphosa, prone to taking impromptu walks in local communities, launched the Youth Employment Service to boost youth employment, the privately funded Nelson Mandela Thuma Mina Fund and dispatched a special envoy – the investment lions – to garner direct foreign investment. Both in their first 100 days had vast support and big visions.