This is what language is:
a habitual grief. A turn of speech
for the everyday and ordinary abrasion
of losses such as this:
which hurts
just enough to be a scar
And heals just enough to be a nation.
(From The Lost Land: Poems by Eavan Boland)
As the analysis of the independent panel report on Phala Phala dominated the headlines and swirled around us, it was hard not to simply grieve for a country driven to the edge of the abyss too many times to mention – a country exhausted by its own brokenness. Last week the independent panel, chaired by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, found that President Cyril Ramaphosa may have committed a serious violation of the law and misconduct in terms of the Constitution regarding a robbery at his Phala Phala game farm in 2020.
Since the panel’s report was released, the already shaky ground of South African politics has become even shakier. Politics can be cruel – one minute Ramaphosa had branch nominations stitched up and was being feted by the king of England, the next moment his credibility was in tatters. The timing could also not have been worse given that the ANC elective conference takes place in a matter of days.
The facts are now well known: the panel report follows former director-general of the State Security Agency (SSA), the notorious Arthur Fraser, laying a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa relating to the Phala Phala burglary.
It is a tale worthy of a B-grade movie. Quite where the truth lies in this sorry saga still remains unclear. It is made murkier and also complicated by the fact that Fraser himself is implicated in the capture of the SSA and is no stranger to controversy. The final instalment of the Zondo Report deals, in part, with the SSA.
Over the past week since the panel report was released, much ink has been spilt and much analysis turned on whether the panel had misdirected itself and what the difference is between prima facie evidence and sufficient evidence (which was required for the panel to come to the conclusion it did).
Last Thursday was an extraordinary night, though South Africans are well-used to December political drama. It seems the President was talked out of resigning after the report was released. He will take the report on review to the Constitutional Court, once more placing the extreme pressure of the political moment on the judiciary, as we have seen so often over the past decade. All the challenges of our politics often and unhelpfully end up having to be adjudicated by the courts.
Ramaphosa, of course, has every right to take the panel’s report on review. So, there is the legal route which buys some time, while a tense and dangerous political battle plays itself out simultaneously. After all, the ink had barely dried on the report when Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, a member of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, said on live television that the President should step aside “immediately”. And as if it was needed, it provided every reprobate politician and member of the ANC with an opportunity to do the same.
Whether Ramaphosa survives at Nasrec remains to be seen. He and his supporters have taken a calculated risk; take the report on review and throw down the gauntlet at Nasrec. After all, ANC conferences are about intense horse-trading.
In Ramaphosa’s favour might well be that the “RET” faction of the ANC is a motley crew with no real leader and too many to mention who are tainted by corruption. Divided, they wish to rule.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Phala Phala panel report – information is not evidence, says President in ConCourt challenge to impeachment findings”
A perhaps further and trite observation: the ANC is simply staving off the inevitable – when Ramaphosa goes, whether sooner or later, the party has reached its sell-by date. It is nothing but a vehicle for self-enrichment for most of its members and most of what it touches in government, has turned to ruin. So, South Africa must prepare for politics without the ANC even as many fair-minded people have in the past week defended Ramaphosa only because he is “the best of a bad lot”. The alternatives to Ramaphosa are too ghastly to contemplate and so this is where we find ourselves, at the mercy of corrupt and opportunistic ANC party politics.
Despite the hope we all had to place in Ramaphosa, no one in the ANC can really claim to have clean hands given what we know about State Capture.
Bad ‘spin’
Adding to Ramaphosa’s woes is that the entire Phala Phala matter has been poorly handled by the Presidency. But then again, one has to work with the material one has. This poor “spin doctoring” saw the President going horribly off-piste in Limpopo in June. Then, he told the assembled ANC gathering, “some of the people who bought the animals are here”. This was followed by his characteristic chuckle. When the panel report was made public last Wednesday, the Presidency seemed stunned into a worrying silence. There was the on again, off again address to the nation and since then, simply silence. We have been left as passive observers to the ANC cannibalising itself. But this is entirely in keeping with this president and how he has operated; accountability to the party first and bother about citizens later. Even during the Covid-19 “family meetings” these were rote addresses without taking questions from the media.
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Ironically, it is precisely this instinct that has now left Ramaphosa out in the cold and drained of authority. Party über alles has hardly worked as his very comrades draw the long knives. To win the ANC presidency, Ramaphosa entered into a series of compromises with all manner of characters. It is this Faustian pact that has infused Ramaphosa’s every action and has had a grave impact on his ability to govern.
He has consistently shown fealty to his party to the detriment of the country; whether during the insurrection, the fire at Parliament or dealing with errant members of his Cabinet, his presidency has been tinged with weakness. Is that a weakness born of a desire to do the impossible by unifying the corrupt and venal ANC, or a weakness born of wanting to be liked, or, more sinister, a weakness born out of the fact that he himself is compromised? Or, all three?
Read in Daily Maverick: “NEC’s decision to quash Phala Phala panel report proves the ANC is (still) the only game in town”
The tragedy of this political moment, of course, is that we have serious governance challenges; an electricity grid on the brink of collapse, the effects of climate change, rising food and fuel prices and a society in general teetering on the brink of social unrest. Ramaphosa, distracted by scandal, will be hard-pressed to prioritise any of these challenges, try as he might.
Arthur Fraser opened the proverbial Pandora’s box and all the evil has now spilled into the open in a manner befitting a Greek myth. We see a president desperate to save his political life and we are entirely on our own in protecting and defending our democracy and its Constitution. We had a taste of it during the insurrection last July. But we also see the brazen attacks on our constitutional democracy in the past few days as there have been personal attacks on members of the independent panel, and then we saw this more vividly when Janusz Waluś was set to be released on parole. If we are to be a country undergirded by the rule of law, then words matter – and it matters that we accept the ConCourt’s considered judgment that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights apply to everyone, even Waluś. It also means being respectful of the s89 process even if the report of the panel was unpalatable to some and even if it may have misdirected itself.
Parliament will debate the matter on Tuesday and the manner of that debate will be important in setting the tone of whatever is to follow. Whether there is agreement about the panel’s findings or not, we can take comfort in the fact that, thus far, the constitutional process regarding impeachment has been followed in an orderly manner. Whatever the ConCourt decides on review will also be important for the future of our constitutional democracy. The impeachment of a president should not be done lightly and should also follow a proper, logical process which the public understands. So, while the President may be suffering legal and political travails, we as a citizenry have much work to do in protecting and defending our Constitution.
And so, Cyril Ramaphosa, the great reformer who started out on the front page of the Financial Times in 2018, now has international media asking only about Phala Phala.
There can be no more talk of unity within the ANC. There is only open warfare and a pathetic scramble for power. The party is well and truly unfit for purpose and there will be no deus ex machina to save it from itself. It simply must die and we must fashion something of lasting value which goes beyond the fixation on party and personality.
It won’t be long before we find out exactly what a post-ANC South Africa looks like. We must not be afraid to meet that moment. DM
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Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold – mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. WB Yeats. And so it goes, and so it goes.
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Firstly let me say that this is a superlative and highly perspicacious article , well worth the read.
Secondly, my brief take on the topic.
It must be clear to most objective observers that a series of tragic errors was made in the period 1990 -1994. A Constitution was adopted which was not fit for purpose. Amongst in numerous flaws was the fact that it ensured that the ANC would have long -term political dominance. Manouverings within the Party was ( and still remains ) the only game in town.
The ANC is now headed for a break-up , which may be violent. That may be followed by a break-up of the country into disparate geographical entities. Some of those may be economically viable .
Residents in those regions should start looking at the viability of their own areas.
It is difficult to comprehend why Ramaphosa has allowed the rising tide of disrespect from within his own cabinet to continue for so long. But now is the time to fire Dlamini-Zuma and Sisulu (at least) and throw down the gauntlet to the RET charlatans. It could be a good moment for him to make clear that in future it is the country first, not ANC unity. So damn the Elective Conference and pass the ammunition!
Judith is one of the few analysts whose thought and analytical processes are grounded on the fundamental principles of democracy and her approach that democracy has to be anchored on institutions not individuals makes her one of the analysts you sit and listen to and if she writes something you are eager to read it because you cannot predict her or pigeon hole her. This piece is a very erudite analytical piece on the saga surrounding Ramaphosa and her analysis is of great educational and information value on the various pieces around the issue. She as always, refuses to immerse herself in the ANC factional battles and provides a very balanced view on the issue. She correctly point out that the processes have been followed in setting up the panel and it arrived at a decision
and she refuses to condemn its findings and leaves it to competent authorities. She understand as some amongst us do the extreme pressure our politics place on our judiciary. One was heartened by the statement of the Chief Justice in the address to the Public Service Commission workshop on corruption that as the judiciary they will continue to make decisions informed by the Constitution, the law, the evidence and facts and are not seeking popularity. We need to affirm our support to the Chief Justice. Judith places importance on the both the outcomes of parliament and the review that analysts who immerse themselves in ANC politics disregard. We need more people like her with a level head.
Judith is clearly one of the country’s best political analysts. I hope she will help guide South Africa at the appropriate time (to use her words) to “… fashion something of lasting value which goes beyond the fixation on party and personality.”