On 10 February 2020, Isolezwe, the biggest daily newspaper in KwaZulu-Natal, with a readership of more than a quarter of a million readers, carried a damning article on Cyril Ramaphosa’s performance as president.
The article’s title was blunt. Iqiniso malingafihlwa, uhlulekile uRamaphosa (let the truth not be hidden, Ramaphosa has failed). This observation was made before the onset of COVID-19 on our shores. In other words, COVID-19 should not be used as an alibi. Listening to President Ramaphosa's State of the Nation address, which tended to be a mixture of promises and hallucinations, it becomes clear that Isolezwe’s article is as applicable today as it was five years earlier.
The outspoken billionaire Rob Hersov, whose family backed President Ramaphosa financially during his bid for the ANC's presidency, remarked not so long ago, “I want now to do a message to Cyril, directly. Cyril, you are gonna end up on the wrong side of history, and you know it. You are gonna get fired. Because you ain't loved anymore. What I would like you to do Cyril, is resign today from the ANC. Say you woke up this morning and realized this country is on the wrong path. You've made mistakes, you're gonna admit it. You will potentially be a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the next Mandela. You will be a hero, and your legend will live forever, but you need to do it now.”
Ramaphosa could take a leaf from Justin Trudeau, the former Canadian Prime Minister who resigned from office. Announcing his resignation, Trudeau told the Canadian people:
“Over the holidays, I've also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. Throughout my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and encouragement. So last night, over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that…I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process.”
Trudeau went further: “This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option.”
The likes of Hersov should not hold their breath. President Ramaphosa is going nowhere. Aside from having to keep his side of the bargain (given that his financial backers have kept theirs), Ramaphosa loves being President.
Regarding this, Raymond Suttner, UNISA’s Emeritus Professor does not mince his words. “There is little in the record of Ramaphosa to suggest anything more than a self-indulgent, narcissistic attachment to the idea of being president, a presidency that has little content. What ideas, what vision, what ethics, if any, drive this man, and for that matter the organisation that he leads?” (The Daily Maverick, Op-ed 9/01/2021).
As expected, the SONA was full of new and old promises.
The two words “we will” appear 49 times in the speech. Promises and lies seem to come easily to Ramaphosa. In 2019 Ramaphosa promised to build one million houses for the people of the Alexander township.
To date, there is no evidence that they were built. When confronted in Parliament, Ramaphosa tried to deny it. This denial was a blatant lie. Ramaphosa grudgingly acknowledged as much. The voice and video recordings were not unavailable to him. Ramaphosa was let off the hook despite the incontrovertible evidence of his attempt to mislead parliament.
Perhaps the most telling aspect of Ramaphosa and the ANC's failure was captured by his reference to the Freedom Charter. Ramaphosa averred. “The Freedom Charter is the cornerstone of our democratic Constitution. It sets out a vision of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous South Africa. It sets out a vision of a country in which government is founded on the will of the people, where the land is shared among those who work it, where the people share in the country’s wealth, and all are equal before the law.”
Thirty years of the ANC government has not brought this vision any closer. South Africa has become the capital of global inequality. If anything, the country has regressed in the last six years of Ramaphosa’s presidency.
The colour of homelessness, landlessness, hopelessness, and unemployment remains black. The apartheid architecture remains in place. It comes as no surprise that whites continue to be the main beneficiaries of the post-1994 dispensation.
Ramaphosa’s commitment to redressing the past rings hollow when one considers that even at the most trying moments, government relief is geared towards white business. Addressing parliamentarians in 2020, the Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni reportedly noted:
“The government has provided R200-billion government-guaranteed loans. Of that R200 billion, banks have advanced R15 billion to SMMEs – 75% of the beneficiaries are white. Equally, the Business Partners have a scheme to support SMMEs, and of their scheme of R1-billion … 75% went to white-owned businesses.”
There is nothing new about stating that the government’s “most urgent task is to grow our economy so that we can create jobs, reduce poverty, and improve the lives of all South Africans. To undertake this task, we need a government that works for the people. We need a state that is underpinned by a professional public service.” These statements have been repeated ad nauseum since the advent of democracy. They find expression in almost every SONA and contained in the 2012 National Development Plan.
Investment and infrastructure funding recur in almost every speech that Ramaphosa makes. Once more he had this to say: “We are developing innovative ways of funding infrastructure. We are engaging local and international financial institutions and investors to unlock R 100 billion in infrastructure financing.”
The record of all of this has been abysmal. In his article, 'Country’s worst president since 1994?' (Business Day 7 Feb 2023), Duma Gqubule, a research associate at the Social Policy Initiative reminds us: “Whichever way one slices the data, Cyril Ramaphosa's presidency has been a disaster for the economy… In February 2019 the government announced a R100bn infrastructure fund. Four years later it does not contain a cent. Despite four investment summits where pledges of R1.1 trillion were made, GFCF plunged to 13.1% of GDP in 2021 — the lowest since 1946 when the Reserve Bank started collecting statistics — from 16.4% in 2017.”
Reduction of the “severity and frequency of load shedding, with more than 300 days without load shedding since March 2024” should be welcomed. The fact, however, is that load shedding was unnecessary. It came back in 2018 with Ramaphosa’s assumption of office as the president of the country.
While President Ramaphosa waxes lyrically about job creation, the country has been experiencing a job bloodbath. According to Stats SA, under the so-called government of national unity, economically inactive persons increased by 214 000 in the third quarter of 2024, with ArcelorMittal gearing itself to close, cutting down about 3 500 jobs, Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA reportedly estimates that this could lead to 293 754 direct and indirect job losses. Other industries, trade, transport, and manufacturing have also not been spared.
Again, President Ramaphosa wants the country to believe that under his administration “durable institutions that support our democracy, protect our fundamental rights and promote the well-being of South Africans [were built]….This year, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development will report on the review of the Anti-Corruption architecture by the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Unit.”
If state institutions were durable, Ramaphosa would have been forced to resign. As the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party, Mr. Kenneth Meshoe observed. “As he (Ramaphosa) has not come clean regarding the 4 million USD found in his farm, people will not trust him…. Corruption will continue to be a challenge in South Africa until the President comes clean.”
Meshoe is not alone. A year ago, on 30 Jan 2024, John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, now a minister in Ramaphosa’s cabinet, contended. “The latest annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) confirms what South Africans have come to know under President Cyril Ramaphosa’s term of office: that his administration is more corrupt than that of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma…. South Africa’s fall in the CPI ranking confirms that Ramaphosa has betrayed the anti-corruption promises he made before the State Capture Commission. He has consistently shielded fellow ANC cadres implicated before the commission.”
If the institutions of the state were as durable as Ramaphosa wants us to believe, he would be facing charges ranging from money laundering, defeating the ends of justice, and conflict of interests, Ramaphosa remains in office simply because he has been shielded from prosecution by the National Prosecuting Authority. Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media and so-called non-governmental organisations are deafeningly silent. Advocate Vuyani Ngalwana SC reminds us. “There is a prima facie finding by luminaries in the field of Law. All that is required to start a prosecution is a prima facie basis for the charge, not a reasonable doubt. The prima facie basis is there –but has the Prosecuting Authority taken that up to prosecute? No.”
Once more, as Isolezwe prophetically observed, Iqiniso malingafihlwa, uhlulekile uRamaphosa (let the truth not be hidden, Ramaphosa has failed).
* Professor Sipho P. Seepe is a Higher Education and Strategy Consultant.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.