The Third South African Communist Party Special Congress had been until Thursday a rather dry affair, dealing in the main with communistic stuff, which these days mostly involves using ‘hegemon’ in a noun, an adjective and a verb. But then Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa showed up, and things turned decidedly spicy. He touched on every conceivable topic germane to the current iteration of the African National Congress, minus the small matter of the president’s palace, and the much larger matter of Marikana. And like everyone else, he used ex-COSATU Sec Gen Zwelinzima Vavi as a conceptual piñata. Welcome to the possible future of your country, which is in all ways exactly the same as the present. By RICHARD POPLAK.