Ramaphorias turn against their hero

 Supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa - ”Ramaphorias” - turn against their man.

It's taken a long time for Ramaphosa's supporters to turn against their superhero. From the time he was appointed interim president in 2016 after Jacob Zuma’s "recall” to president the following year, he's had their unequivocal, devoted support. Until now.

The Ramaphorias, so named during his run for ANC president in 2017, campaigned hard for their man. While he had supporters within the ANC, his election was never a certainty because mainstream ANC was Zuma supporters. These put their lot behind Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. 

Ramaphosa's, himself a BEE billionaire, campaign was backed by the group known as CR17, among them Stellenbosch billionaire Johann Rupert. Other Ramaphorias were the liberal-left media Primedia, Daily Maverick, Business Day, etc and their contributors. Even centre-conservative media were cautiously optimistic or withheld judgement. Hope was needed after Zuma and his corrupt cohorts in the ANC and Guptas hollowed out the country.

Notable among Ramaphorias was Peter Bruce, Business Day columnist and ”editor-at-large". His support was more like worship and articles panegyrics: Ramaphosa was the "master negotiator” and "strategist"; he must first ”consolidate his position" in the ANC and cabinet before the changes South Africa needed were implemented; Ramaphosa would ”bring investment to South Africa” and so on. 

Bruce’s smarminess, though embarrassing, was initially tolerated. But after a few months when Ramaphosa was revealed to be another ANC windbag, even Business Day’s moderate readers made fun of Bruce's increasingly desperate spin.

Ramaphorias were not confined to the left media, although not as fanatical as Bruce. For example, three months into Ramaphosa's term conservative syndicated columinst William Saunderson-Meyer wrote ”Ramaphosa is not doing too badly” [sic]. 

Three months is too early to assess any holder of a post - it takes six months to a year. Three months later, when Ramaphosa was already floundering and not living up to his promises, WSM turned 180 degrees, criticising Ramaphosa, his previous praise forgotten. 

Party political and ANC leadership campaigns are not about what's good for the country. But Ramaphorias, and to an extent country, hoped and assumed Ramaphosa would be a lot better than the dreadful Zuma, mostly because anyone after him had to be.

On Ramaphosa's appointment as president he promised a leaner and more efficient government, reduction of portfolios, merit-based appointments, removal of incompetent ministers of which there were many in the cabinet, removing obstacles to investment and doing business, increasing investment, tackling corruption, appointing a commission of inquiry into corruption outgoing public protector Thuli Madonsela recommended and so on.

But the only thing he did was slightly reduce cabinet portfolios by consolidating four and appointing the Inquiry into State Capture. He had no choice though because the public demanded action - corruption under Zuma was known to be extensive, affecting all parts ofstate. The ANC didn't want their dirty linen exposed but for Ramaphosa to have ignored it, as the ANC did for so long, would have meant squandering any positive capital he'd had.

Ramaphosa appointed dubious characters like Gwede Mantashe and kept others like Angie Motshekga to cabinet. This was payback for their campaign support. His supporters like Bruce claimed the ”master strategist” needed time before he made his move against closet Zuma acolytes who wanted to unseat him. Their arguments lacked merit because there was no chance the ANC would replace Ramaphosa so soon after Zuma, not after the extent of his and Guptas' corruption was evident; the country and particularly market would not stand for it.

So mainly the same cast, who was running the country into the ground, were present again only this time with Ramaposter as president and not deputy president. He made regular promises of billions investment in the economy, especially after visiting Davos, which Bruce et al jumped on as proof of his brilliance. When investment proved illusory, it became hard to justify their faith in him. Still they made excuses. But after a year of emptiness even their patience wore thin.

On the social and governance front, none of Ramaposter's promises materialised. The country muddled along. Then in 2018 Ramaphorias were handed a gift: public protector Busisiwe Mkwebane.

Her office had investigated allegations of irregularities against former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and Ramaphosa's CR17 funding and made findings against them. The details are already known and will not be repeated but Gordhan and later Ramaphosa challenged her findings in court which ruled in their favour. 

Around then Mkwebane had made other questionable findings like the ABSA apartheid reparations and Gupta-linked Free State Vrede Dairy Farm that drew criticism of incompetence and over-reach, but it was those against Gordhan and Ramaposter that drove Ramaphorias into a frenzy of hatred. 

On little to no evidence, except Court rulings against her and judges' off-the-cuff comments, Ramaphorias determined Mkwebane was incompetent, corrupt, a Zuma supporter (she might be but that was beside the point; Ramaposter's cabinet was and is littered with them), had a beef against Gordhan, Ramaphosa and was a danger to the Constitution and democracy.

What began as opinions in Daily Maverick by people like legal contributors Pierre de Vos (reportedly a failed applicant for public protector that Mkwebane won) and pseudonymous Balthazar, spread to a nation-wide witch-hunt that even moderates and conservatives, right-wing DA included, joined. Oddly, the ANC was quiet at first. Mkwebane's only support was the EFF, which proved the case for the witch-hunt; the EFF is widely disliked for its antics and extreme-left antics and rhetoric (that it's showboating is beside the point).

While Madonsela was unusually conscientious for a public officer, for which she's put on a pedestal, Mkwebane was the norm. This is the ANC and governance standard in South Africa. 

While her competence and conduct were scrutinised, misconduct and incompetence in cabinet and government passed her critics by. She was the cause celebre, the lighting rod for Ramaphorias, the distraction and misdirection for their disappointment in him. They refused to admit he, and by extension, they were failures. So Ramaphosa - the imposter president - had to be defended at all cost; the best defence is offence. 

So they found a scapegoat: Busiswe Mkwebane (Julius Malema was too unpredictable and tough opponent). I don't think they even knew, at first anyway, what they are doing, in the same way a lemming doesn't question why it's running to its death over the cliff. It's instinct. The uninformed public could follow the prevailing opinion but not savvy analysts, or so we hope.

To put it in context, the office of the public protector receives over 20, 000 cases a year. Only a negligible percentage is taken on review, mostly by cabinet-level people who can afford to pay costs or whose office pays. At the time of Gordhan's case, under half the PP's findings were being reviewed, some from Madonsela's time. The PP lost half. That's a very good record; the NPA's is not that good and neither are private litigants.

Another thing the witch-hunt brigade ignored was the public protector, whoever that is, does not initiate complaints; any citizen can. She personally does not investigate and in only high-profile, sensitive cases becomes involved. Publicity-hungry Madonsela did. The public loved her for it, but not Mkwebane.

The only explanation is that when Mkwebane got involved with Ramaphosa's and Gordhan's cases, and one or two equally sensitive others, Ramaphorias had to act. If she was against him and his collaborators, she had to go. If it was suspected she was pro-Zuma or anti-business status quo, she had to go. People like De Vos, Balthazar, etc were either unwitting tools or part of the conspiracy. I don't think there was a formal plan to get rid of her but something that, fortuitous for Ramaphorias, sprang from their spontaneous furtive writings.

There was no legal process to impeach or remove the public protector so the ANC, appearing reluctant to get involved, passed a new law. That didn't stop her detractors, though, growing more furious each day as she put up a formidable legal defence. Even without it being enacted Ramaphorias like CapeTalk's John Maytham said "she must be impeached”. In justification he conflated an opinion by the Parliament's Justice Committee there were grounds to impeach with an actual judgement. Maytham is one of the more savvy media commentators so his ignorance and maliciousness would be disturbing if it wasn't the norm.

Eventually Ramaposter suspended Mkwebane, dismissing comments he had a conflict of interest. Ramaphorias Balthazar, De Vos and others fumed that her legal defence was somehow uncalled for and unconstitutional, wishing to deny her the right granted under law. They elevated her to the worst villain - Daily Maverick' villain of 2022 [sic] - while ignoring Judge John Hlope's and Zuma's long- running legal problems, Eskom and the various country's crises. 

Mkwebane's impeachment proceeds.

The Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021 brought challenges to the country like it did the world. The Ramaposter administration was slow to react and when it did, confusingly. Much like Boris Johnson's UK.

On taking office Ramaposter promised to crack down on corruption. But the pandemic resulted in PPE tender corruption in the hundreds of millions of rand. His chief of staff and health minister were implicated. Instead of firing and reporting her to the police, he suspended her for a month and made her apologise. The health minister, whose son benefitted from tenders, resigned after a public outcry. He said he was innocence, though. Note Ramaphoster had not asked for his resignation.

While the media and remaining Ramaphorias were growing disillusioned, they were still soft in their criticisms. That all changed in 2022 with two events: Phala Phala and permanent load-shedding.

Both events have been extensively reported suffice it to say for Phala Phala - $500,000 to $4 million was stuffed in a sofa at Ramaposter's game farm - Ramaposter likely violated currency and bribery laws and abuse of office including instructing his VIP police squad to track down the alleged thieves and pay them off. If he'd been any other person, the Guptas say, he'd have been charged. As it is, the acting public protector's report is still outstanding and ANC MPs predictably declined to impeach him, history repeating itself.

On taking office Ramaposter promised load-shedding would end within two years. Like his investment promises, few believed him (except Ramaphorias) because Eskom's problems are significant and entrenched. For two decades the ANC government failed to do what needed to be done and enabled corruption and criminality within the entity to flourish. And he'd appointed Mantashe as energy minister who p!aces obstacles to weaning SA off coal and refused to allow cities to source energy from alternative, green sources. Minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan, which Eskom falls under, was and is invisible to its oversight.

Eskom's CEO Alex de Ruyter, attacked from all quarters in the ANC alliance including Mantashe, for trying to limit corruption and stabilise its generating capacity, received no cabinet support. (Eakom is producing half the energy - 20,000 MW - now than on 1994. 

Ramaposter was silent when Mantashe accused De Ruyter of trying to overthrow the state, leading him to resign in December stating his employer, government, had no confidence in him. In January De Ruyter revealed he'd been poisoned by cyanide at the office. This week he said the police investigating have no competence. But showing that things are really bad, Cosatu, which previously wanted "wanted" De Ruyter fired, asked government to keep him on until a replacement could be found.

On the periphery of local meltdowns are South Africa hosting Russia and China in naval exercises, welcoming the Russian foreign minister's visit and excusing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. South Africa is one of the few countries that have not opposed it. 

But Ramafucker used his state visit to the UK, hosted by Charles, to criticise colonialism. As one writer, Greg Mills I think, said, the ANC objects to colonialism except where it concerns their friends Russia and China.

It's taken a long time but the Ramaphorias have finally turned against their hero. During his CapeTalk show this week John Maytham said his confidence in Ramaphosa has "dwindled and dwindled over these past few months". Only a few months - Ramaposter was hopeless from day one? Does this mean they still have lingering hope?

I really want to know what was it about him prior becoming president that created the impression or belief he'd amount to anything much as a leader and individual, given his role and position in the ANC and cabinet? 

Forgotten was his role in Marikana. Forgotten was his compliance as deputy president of Jacob Zuma, who with the other cabinet and ANC MPs sat by while the country was fleeced. Forgotten was his deal with the devil, the original sin of the new, post-1994 SA: the gift of BEE millions. Even the country muddling along to social decay under his leadership hardly affected their support. 

Only now have they turned on their man. Over the past few days alone are articles and cartoons about his "seven years empty promises" and "emperor with no clothes". This belated response does not excuse them for enabling and collaborating with him, though, for which they are morally accountable.

A leader must inspire, motivate, command, have ideas and vision, be courageous, do what is best for the people while being unafraid to make unpopular decisions. Ramaposter has none of those qualities. 

While acting in the country's interests has never being an ANC thing, Ramaposter, like his predecessors except Nelson Mandela, has put the ANC first. So rather than fire Mantashe to save South Africa from a blackout, he keeps him on while speculation of a cabinet shuffle does the round. Ramaposter is afraid to act where even Zuma did albeit it his best interest.

Ramaposter is South Africa's worst president, worse even than Zuma once the corruption elephant is put aside. Further, he's in the top three worst presidents in South Africa ever. While Zuma brought SA near the edge with grand corruption, Ramaphosa might be the one in charge when it does - the lights finally go off with a total blackout - a scenario I suspect it's very close to.