When Cyril Ramaphosa finally won his prized seat as ANC chairman some five years ago, I thought his narrow margin of victory dictated that he could do only one thing for years to come: behave like a one-time president. And by that, I mean making all the hard decisions, making sure that those who shuddered at the very thought of a new dawn felt its radiance in the end. The narrow margin by which he had won should not have given her any comfort. He should have understood that he only had limited time if he wanted a legacy of good, clean government that he held dear.
But instead of a swashbuckling presidency, he played for re-election, I felt. Always a man of process, he followed his path. Firm behind the wheel, despite the fact that we (the peanut gallery) have literally felt that the world was closing in on us: a covid pandemic, a corruption cancer, an Eskom that collapses and has us sitting on stage six of load shedding, even heavy. industries have virtually shut down for the festive season.
His re-election play, as nervous as it must have been over the past month and especially over the course of this elective conference that the mail and guardian team has covered so brilliantly, in the end it has succeeded. He has his second term.
Now, at best, he has about five years left as South Africa’s president if the ANC manages to hold on to its majority in about 18 months. There is little chance of him completing that term if Jesus does not come in 2024 because we know through ANC history that Ramaphosa will be remembered after the 2027 elective conference. I am open to bet on that.
The question for Ramaphosa, who would be 75 by 2027, is what he will do to salvage his legacy as the ANC’s 14th president and the country’s fifth since the dawn of democracy. Nelson Mandela’s chosen one has a lot of work to do if he is to redeem himself in the eyes of his many compatriots, investors and all sorts of people who rallied behind his 2017 ANC victory. “Ramaphoria” was a real thing, if probably gullible. , given the state of his party.
He is surrounded by better men and women than those who were by his side in 2017; In truth, it looked like a hostage situation. This time you have a team, will you use it to bolster your reputation and give your party the best chance of maintaining its majority in 2024, or will it go to waste? I say this knowing full well that there is the matter of Phala-Phala, which could undo all this promise.
Which brings me back to my earlier point, what if you were to behave like a one-time president in the first place? Where would he, the ANC and the country be today?
