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Opinionista

It’s a fair bet that a majority of South Africans want Cyril Ramaphosa to fight on — and win

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Tony Heard was Editor of the Cape Times 1971-87, and a ministerial and Presidential adviser in the Mandela and Mbeki administrations.

President Cyril Ramaphosa should now bare his teeth and go for the jugular, not so much for himself, but for all who live in this high-potential country.

The assortment of thieves, tricksters and con artists who conspired to frame Cyril Ramaphosa must not be allowed to push him out. This applies, however harshly his judgement over Phala Phala can be questioned.

Whether, and how, his riven African National Congress survives is secondary to saving South Africa. The important thing is that the country must continue on the path set by its democratic leaders after apartheid, and regain the envy of the world we had under Nelson Mandela. 

Ramaphosa has it in him and in his proven political record to do this. He is in the Mandela mould, years ago being favoured by Mandela over the equally astute Thabo Mbeki for top office.

There is a time in politics for leaders to bare their teeth and go for the jugular. That moment has arrived for our embattled President. He must not succumb to the traps laid for him by his detractors, thin on fact and heavy on unproven innuendo (nearly 10-fold exaggeration over stolen banknotes). He must fight to remain in office to finish the job he began in 2018.

A stick to beat a president

Ramaphosa has done tolerably well up to now in horrendously challenging years. He has certainly done better than any living South African politician could have after the morass of Zuma-Gupta State Capture. On any balanced reading, Ramaphosa can justly point to substantial success in national recovery, despite damaging new challenges (read Eskom; and Covid and Ukraine fallout globally).

Yes, he made mistakes — not being forthcoming enough at the start over the Phala Phala theft, wanting to leave it to due process to decide. Mistakes and misjudgments are not unique in the world of politics, but must be dealt with speedily and handsomely.

Some charges levelled at the President seem very technical, such as to whom a head of state should correctly report a theft of cash at their farm or the legal and foreign exchange protocols of keeping large cash sums in one’s farmhouse.

Respected Prof Richard Calland has already argued that the stick chosen by others to beat CR, in fact a very preliminary investigation by an ex-Chief Justice heading a panel, is far from the proven fact needed to impeach a president.

That process could well lie ahead. But first the President intends to have the panel report reviewed by the courts, which is his right.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “The Fight Is On: Ramaphosa intends to challenge the Ngcobo Panel Report

The wealthy CR was known to be hands-off when, as President, it came to his own personal finances. Concluding that he was cunningly “earning on the side” in breach of ethical rules can always be asserted. But it must be proven, through due process, to hold water. An independently wealthy president can surely afford not to earn money “on the side”. The point is marginal if not trivial. His predecessor did not care a fig for such rules, amassing millions and costing South Africa billions.

There was nothing to block Ramaphosa’s widely-known-about wildlife sales carrying on business as usual, with him hands off. Selling wildlife is often done in cash. SARS and Exchange Control should comment and, if necessary, act, since that is their job.

Similarly with charges that he interfered in the theft investigation and other actions launched by the authorities. Did he? How? The public wants proof, not allegation.

After all, the President is the victim in this farm matter. That is, victim of the crime of theft. Not the thief. Critics should check elsewhere for the real crooks. He is not an accused facing charges in court, to warrant his stepping aside till clarity.

All the expert panel really said was that CR “may” have transgressed his oath and has a case to answer. Well, let that happen. Meanwhile, he is fully at liberty to fight to stay on.

One hopes that, after initial hesitation about resigning, CR now does battle at the NEC and, if this goes to an impeachment process, that Parliament finds no simple majority for that drastic step. It seems out of proportion to the offence alleged.

Keep your friends close…

We as a nation need Ramaphosa. There is no other figure of his stature, domestically and globally, who can command such support, such future investment and growth as we enter our hardest times. He has just completed a historic State visit to Britain, which helps confirm this. Just ask organised business, who have already weighed in persuasively on his importance to SA’s future.

Imagine Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma managing those challenges, with baying RET and populist bull terriers supporting her.

It’s not just the President’s own followers in the ANC who should get the essential point. Imagine if the Democratic Alliance vote — which is substantial — contributes to swinging the balance to eventually getting rid of him. The official opposition should choose their friends most carefully at this watershed moment in South African history.

Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations

As a special adviser in the Presidency, I witnessed how the NEC under resurgent Jacob Zuma’s influence launched a star chamber assault on a highly competent President in 2008. Let’s not see a repeat of that Mbeki error. He should have refused to step down and taken the matter to Parliament where it belonged. And won.

It could have saved South Africa from State Capture and debilitating theft from the poor had he himself been able to manage a rational succession.

Let’s hope CR survives this test and is freed to give his fullest attention to ending the rot, if not in the ANC, but certainly in a fine country in trouble. DM

Tony Heard is the only surviving South African to be awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom from the global publishers’ and editors’ body, WAN-Infra (1986).

He has also seen 10 South African leaders in action since 1958: Strijdom died in office, illness. Verwoerd knifed to death. Vorster pushed out over the Info Scandal. PW Botha ousted. De Klerk, who handed over to Mandela. Mbeki recalled by the NEC. Motlanthe, an able caretaker. Zuma — forced to resign. Ramaphosa …?

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Peter Slingsby says:

    Well said, Tony. As long as the man now pulls his finger out and gets rid of all the thieves and useless prima donnas who litter his Cabinet and his party at every level. But don’t expect too much from the DA – the words ‘nuance’ and ‘subtlety’ do not exist in their lexicon. All they want is a President they can complain about, whoever he/she may be.

    • - Matt says:

      … and there’s the rub Peter, in 5 years he hasn’t “pull(ed) his finger out”. Other than vaguely slow the speed with which SA is careening towards the cliff, he has done so very little, when there is so very much to do. Frankly he has been a great disappointment. So, I do hope, if he gets a 2nd term, he actually does something …

    • Karl Nepgen says:

      Touche, in all cases. Unfortunately the DA helieves it has to criticise negatively, irrespective of the case or consequences. So we need a good governing party as well as a good opposition.

  • Darrin McComb says:

    Not wanting to defend Ramaphosa or the ANC but it strikes me that the minute one pulls out the microscope to apply the principal of the law one leaves behind the principal. As Charles Dickens character Mr Bumble eloquently points out when he too is wrongly presumed to be a culprit..”the law is a ass!”.

    What I will give President Ramaphosa is that he has not tried to throw anyone under the bus (i.e his farm manager) in this process. One can presume that had this been any of the RET aligned leaders there would have been plenty of Buffalo scat spewing forth in an effort to cover their own Buffalo size tracks.

  • Cunningham Ngcukana says:

    Tony Heard is talking absolute rubbish. We live in a constitutional democracy that ought to be anchored on, not individuals. Whilst the majority is against ANC criminals taking over the country, it is also interested in answers from the President on what actually happened around the burglary in Phala Phala and the obfuscation by the President. We have people with no respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and due process like Tony Heard. It is a lie that there is no other person nationally and globally like Ramaphosa who is in fact a very flawed individual in many respects. In fact the country is on the ropes and he is becoming a constitutional delinquent if we look at his response to the Zondo Commission, the Constitutional Court judgement on the parole and his conduct and response around Phala Phala. Political thugs like Tony Heard tell us the country will fall without Ramaphosa when it never did when Mandela and Mbeki left. That the Daily Maverick gives oxygen to such thugs, is very worrying.
    We survived as a country with the absent leadership of Ramaphosa in July 2021 when the country was burning. He went to the media to lie and say that those who were behind the attempted insurrection were in the line of sight. He has become a serial liar. This includes him skipping the UN ostensibly to address the electricity emergency and the country is still waiting! Tony Heard must take his rubbish elsewhere as handlers of Cyril.

    • Ian Gwilt says:

      Heard a thug ?
      bit over the top

      • Greg de Bruyn says:

        This sounds ominously like you’re speaking on behalf of the public. Include me out. Your views do not represent anybody but yourself.

    • Peter Slingsby says:

      Tony Heard is more than capable of defending himself, but as someone who has known him for nearly forty years I have to say that to describe him as a ‘political thug’ shows a despicable depth of sheer ignorance.

    • Meirion Griffiths says:

      What’s seriously worrying, Mr Ncgukana, is that Daily Maverick allows a bigot like you to ventilate your RETarded views.

      • Anne Erwin says:

        Was also wondering how Cunningham’s comments slip past the “censors” – he specializes in insults but should try making his point without them sometime, one might just be able to discern some valid argument (or maybe not)

  • Beyond Fedup says:

    Great article and agree wholeheartedly. Whilst Cyril is a huge disappointment in many respects, he is the best out of a really rotten bunch. He has to take the fight to these crooks and scumbags who fill the ANC ranks in multitudes. Zuma, his minions and the REThieves/RETards have caused huge, if not irreparable damage to this country, and must NOT be allowed to get their diabolical, predatory and rapacious claws on the national purse and power. SA has to move forward and not backwards to the corrupt and thieving ways of Zuma.

  • D'Esprit Dan says:

    It really is a terrible state of affairs when we’re left hoping that a clearly compromised president – with a grubby side hustle in cash for cows – is our best bet against the Bell Pottinger mob of the ANC, EFF and other assorted political non-entities. What I would like to see is for Ramaphosa to prevail on the 16th of December and unleash hell on his detractors in the ANC. Those Cabinet Ministers who keep calling for him to go but don’t have the moral compass to resign if they’re aggrieved at his behaviour need to be booted out first. Time to draw a line in the sand and unashamedly kick out all those from the Zuma faction – they’ve made it as plain as day that they will sabotage him (and the country) at every opportunity possible. Keeping your friends close and enemies closer has been a disaster in his first term. Get rid of them (and Mantashe, the destroyer of reliable power in SA) and start with a clean slate. If he wins at Nasrec, he has the mandate to clean out the useless, the corrupt, the enemies of South Africa. And then let law enforcement deal with them and their smallanyana skeletons, one by one.

  • Josie Rowe-Setz says:

    The issue of what is best for South Africa at this juncture is forefront for me. I add that an impeachment process is just that, a process. Should the next step be that parliament recommends proceeding with the process, then that is how our law proceeds. Otherwise anyone can be assaulted on the flimsiest of so-called evidence. If we can ensure the process of impeachment proceeds as per the law for a serial offender like the current PP, then we can ensure it for the President. This president does not boast and brag. He does not enter into ad hominem arguments. He conducts himself with dignity. He is also a builder, not a shouter. He has built and is building now some of the strongest economic foundations (and anti corruption) that will stand us all in good stead when his second term is over. He is the one who builds the foundations, not very sexy to look at, but without which the lovely house will fall down. I hope he makes it through. His service to us as South Africans is impeccable

  • D'Esprit Dan says:

    Something I do have a disagreement with the author on is the legacy of Thabo Mbeki: Mbeki wasn’t highly competent in his handling of the two key issues of his day, HIV/AIDS and Zimbabwe. Mbeki’s mental contortions over the link between HIV and AIDS saw hundreds of thousands of people die whilst he fished around the Internet looking for snake oil salesmen, olive oil and potatoes as remedies, leaving poor communities with child-headed households and the disaster that has unleashed across large swathes of our society. Similarly, by denying the crisis in Zimbabwe, he is directly responsible for the massive influx of economic and political refugees from that country into South Africa, with the terrible consequences it has had since then. Ironically, Mbeki’s most telling legacy has been the insertion of denial at every level into the ANC, allowing the Zupta faction to plunder and destroy with impunity. Doubtless Mbeki will deny this too!

  • Michael Sham says:

    What leads you to believe that Cyril is any different from anyone else in the ANC? For the good of the country the ANC must fall even if it means 18 months of confusion.

  • Rg Bolleurs says:

    Cyril has not and is not stopping the rot. Seems he’s now joining it. The only solution is for the anc to go, lock, stock, and barrel

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