Like most people, I am not immune to rousing speeches, especially of the presidential kind that gives one a healthy dopamine hit and a warm glow that “everything will be okay if we just stand side by side and pull together as a nation”, united by a special place in the world’s history books as representing one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed.
It’s something that has always made us feel extra special as a country and has made the world admire us for our chutzpah, and as an example of resilience and fortitude.
In fact, just this week, a memory popped into my mind from 11 years ago. A close friend and I were lamenting the destruction of the Zuma years, which were then only fours years in. The effects of State Capture were starting to tighten their tentacles and a general despondency gripped the country. She turned to me and said, with characteristic fire in her eyes and a half smirk, that what South Africa needed was a rousing speech from someone they actually believed in.
She was convinced we needed something like Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” or Nelson Mandela’s “I am prepared to die” or Thabo Mbeki’s “I am an African” or Barack Obama’s “Yes we can” or even fictional president Jed Bartlett’s “We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great.”
But as we sat in my living room that day, all we were faced with was a president who spent his time defending himself against nefarious allegation after nefarious allegation and had scant to say about a selfless endeavour for the betterment of our country and its people.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Jubilation as thousands at Union Buildings watch Ramaphosa take oath of office
We found little inspiring in him, probably because he was largely the cause of the political and economic downturn that the country was facing.
As I watched the inauguration on Wednesday, I thought about the power and significance of President Cyril Ramphosa’s speech and how important it was to have a president who, in a very fractious political landscape, still worked to pull people together towards a shared South African vision as opposed to sowing division and discord.
As someone whose life revolves around words, I know their evocative power, their ability to take one’s posture from dejection to hopeful and determined.
Words can be stored away and brought out as necessary when one needs fortitude and a reason not to give up, or a reminder of one’s resilience.
In moments like these, one does not need words that inflame, such as those that are coming from disgraced former president Jacob Zuma, who has not aged well in my 11-year reflection as he continues his path of personal gain and chaotic destruction.
At his inauguration on Wednesday, Ramaphosa said: “Today, I make a solemn commitment to be a president for all South Africans, to defend our Constitution and protect our democracy, to work with all those who share the dream of a better life for all, to care for the poor and the vulnerable, and to support all those who are in need, and to make our country stronger, more resilient, more equal and united.”
I suspect these words will find greater resonance with South Africans than any others that have been said to the contrary. And so they should. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
