It’s now or never, Cyril  

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a R900 billion investment commitment to the country that, if seen through, should turn South Africa into a construction site.  

The announcement at the sixth SA Investment Conference should be legacy-defining for Ramaphosa, with half of the investments already committed to the economy through fixed investments and the other half in Development Finance Institution pledges.  

All these “apartheid-education rounded-up figures” as the president quipped will only mean something to citizens when their quality of life changes, when they feel safe, when they have food, when their children’s education means guaranteed employment or opportunity to earn an honest living in a safe country.  But there is a question that needs to be answered first.  

Burning question

This is a question that no one really wants to ask, or rather, answer. It is one that goes to the core of whether this country will shake off 30 years of misrule and financial mismanagement and steer itself back to a trajectory of success or not.

Will Ramaphosa finish his second term?  

It is a question borne of the country’s experiences with the last two ANC presidents’ second terms.  

Former president Thabo Mbeki was booted out with eight months left to his second term and his successor, Jacob Zuma, recalled with just over a year to go in his second term.

Although the reasons for their departures were vastly different, the drive that pushed their opponents to hasten their exits was primarily the same, the factions that were waiting in the wings deemed it time for “it’s our turn to eat”.  

ANC dedication

The ANC as a ruling party has always claimed to be driven by its dedication to “the poorest of the poor” but in practice the faction that determines who comes in as president and how long they stay is based solely on who is benefitting the most from government tenders at any given time.

Like Mbeki, Ramaphosa is at a stage in his career that he realises it is now or never in terms of redeeming his legacy.  

There was a time when it seemed that all there was ever going to be written about his last act in South African politics was going to be the tragedy of the massacre in Marikana, after it was widely concluded that his call for “concomitant action” was deemed to have been what pushed the police to open fire on striking mineworkers.

And then a desperate Zuma gave him a back door entry into the arena to try and redeem his legacy.  

Does Ramaphosa deserve the seat?

Ramaphosa was never really meant to ascend to the highest office to be the face that industry and corporate South Africa would see as their possible saving grace.  

It is no secret that tenderpreneurs have already worked out what their share of that R900 billion is, if any.

The ANC conference at the end of 2027 will determine if Ramaphosa is remembered for having sparked off a revival or just as the president who spent the last two years of his presidency trying to survive his Phala Phala “dollars-in-the-couch” scandal.

The president must understand that his efforts to rebuild the institutions that the “nine wasted years” decimated, the Madlanga outcomes and Sars’ R2 trillion record tax collection will only matter if whoever comes in after him shares his vision.

Yes, the government of national unity’s voting arithmetic percentages might come into play when a president is chosen, but even the opposition knows that to get there Ramaphosa must survive the next three years.  

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