May you find the courage to make the right decisions, Mr Ramaphosa

AN open letter to ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa:

Congratulations on your election to the highest office of the governing party.

It is a deferred dream come true if the writings about your desire to lead the party in the 1990s are anything to go by.

I greet you with the words of Tata Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela from the dock during the Rivonia Trial on April 24 1964 in the Pretoria Supreme Court: “During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

“It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

I dare say that your country at this stage needs you to have the same courage that Madiba had when he confronted the shadow judicial system of the time.

He was evidently buoyed by the resolution he and his selfless fighters had made that death was not too high a price to pay as their humble contribution to the struggle for our liberation.

I quote this because, in my humble opinion, you first need to resolve the question of what price you are willing to pay personally to achieve the epoch-making mandate history is dictating to you.

This is necessary so that you may summon the strength you need to drive a very strong renewal agenda for your party and inspire South Africans to trust it one more time.

I believe resolving this question will simplify the decision-making processes you need to engage in, and unleash you to perform the almost self-evident script of radical organisational and national renewal that is in front of you.

Would you be okay with being betrayed one day as a means to exit the South Africa political scene, at best?

Or, at worst, are you willing to risk your safety and very own life doing the right things to redeem your country?

God forbid that you suffer any harm, but these are pertinent questions to be resolved during the time in which you are assuming leadership.

The ANC you are inheriting has evidently been captured by vested rogue elements who have allegedly created a captive shadow government that appears to administer theft from the people of the republic.

It has seemingly turned the country into a kleptocracy with alleged thieves running the country aground with sheer arrogance and bravado.

The ruthlessness of the prevailing political system has been evident in multiple economic carnages, blatant dereliction of duty, assassinations in key hotspots and recklessness with the public’s hard-earned funds.

Through various outrageous acts, the reigning clique has shown they would go to whatever lengths possible to pursue their selfish desires. Such is the political stage in which your role changes from relative obscurity to the ultimate limelight.

History is littered with many examples of what happens to those who enter the political or broad leadership fray with a sense of urgency to drive radical change.

Those who rise to the occasion and lead with courage often attract the brunt of those who benefit from the status quo.

You rise out of a stalemate situation with your hands relatively tied while South Africans demand nothing less than boldness and decisiveness in ensuring that justice is served on those who perpetrated treasonous acts and betrayed the people of this land.

It seems one of two choices remain in front of you.

To succumb to the political stalemate and watch the historic liberation movement of the people head down to its ultimate demise would be easier under the circumstances.

Or to act decisively with courage and salvage whatever is left of brand ANC so that it can live to see a few more years at the helm of political economic life in South Africa.

What choice you make, I believe, hinges almost entirely on what price you are willing to pay and how you want history to remember you.

The choice is yours. May you find enough courage to do the right thing.

Ongama Mtimka, a concerned fellow South African who believes in the potential greatness of not only our country but of the entire continent.