EDITOR’S NOTE

CYRIL Ramaphosa holds a lot of hope and promise for this country.

We come from a very dark decade of looting and rampant corruption, which saw the near collapse of stateowned entities and an unprecedented economic meltdown as state capture festered.

In December when he defeated Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to become ANC president, many said the governing party – and indeed South Africa – had been saved more pain from the continuation of the tragedy that were the Zuma years.

Indeed our expectations of Ramaphosa are very high. There is no room for any errors. Nothing he does must remind us of Zuma.

That’s why the R500 000 from Bosasa, donated for his presidential campaign and which will soon be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, has angered many of us.

Ramaphosa isn’t Zuma. He can’t get away with such a costly error, which, depending on how he deals with it, could define his political life.

Ramaphosa must know not to use Zuma’s most favourite “I didn’t know” line to escape accountability.

It’s more frightening that the president we trust so much doesn’t know who funded his campaign.

He also can’t believe that paying back the money will be the end of the story. It’s only the beginning. Ramaphosa is not Zuma, and the sooner he realises this, the better.

There are so many questions about this Bosasa donation which need answers.

I am willing to believe again, but I want Ramaphosa to clear all the questions around this donation. If there was nothing untoward, this should be very easy.

In Parliament, the president was so convincing when he told us that he had spoken to his son Andile “at close range” and had seen a contract showing Ramaphosa Junior did legitimate consultancy work for Bosasa, for which he was paid the R500 000.

The trouble is that Andile immediately denied receiving the money.

On Friday Ramaphosa backtracked and told the truth: he had received R500 000 from Bosasa for his presidential campaign.

So what happened to the contract which he saw at “close range”? And if the money was for him, why was it paid via the son and into a trust account?

Who negotiated this “donation” and what was Bosasa, who already make billions in government contracts, promised?

When exactly did the president learn of this deposit? Did he deliberately mislead Parliament? If so, why?

The Bosasa scandal shows us we must be vigilant, no matter who leads.

Ramaphosa should not be one of the leaders Bathabile Dlamini refers to when she says they all have their “smallanyana skeletons”.