Mr President, it’s time for you to leave

Picture of Isaac Mashaba

By Isaac Mashaba

Political analyst


An open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, as South Africa becomes a failing state.


Dear Mr President,

Your lacklustre TV appearance on Sunday left the entire nation underwhelmed.

It is embarrassingly clear that you are not the president as appearing on TV in a smart suit does not make one presidential.

Instead, you have become a convenor of commissions and judicial inquiries that cost millions and only lead to cover-ups and denials.

You use these forums to deflect blame and misdirect an angry and desperate nation. Your commissions and inquiries exhaust us while bankrupting the country.

Under your watch, you have overseen the destruction of political accountability and integrity. You use words such as “democracy” and “freedom” as though they will magically correct everything that has been trampled on under your leadership.

We are not free. We are being held hostage by government-driven criminality and corruption that has degraded almost every aspect of our lives.

We never voted for a leader that would enslave us while hollowing out our economy for own financial and personal gain.

Our country is drowning in debt and yet you continually and shamelessly hold out the beggar’s bowl and boast how much money you have been able to scrounge from the international community that you obviously despise.

The international community is now realising that your government and faction played the great deception with your platitudes, posturing and deceptive rhetoric.

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In so doing, you have betrayed the people you are supposed to lead and protect. Under your anti-West policies, you have overseen the destruction of our economy.

Like your well-known proverbial frog, you have put the entire nation in the pot and the filthy water is slowly reaching boiling point.

The recent allegations about our minister of police are beyond shocking, especially as he is so close to you.

Yet, he gets placed on “special leave”, no doubt with full pay, while such allegations against any other citizen will lead to much more severe sanction. The hypocrisy is astounding.

And the public’s loss of trust in our law enforcement agencies under your leadership is terrifying.

And while the nation continues to reel in shock at the allegations, you continue flirting with states that sponsor chaos and international terrorism.

Surely you must be aware of the consequences and grave dangers you are leading the nation into by your steadfast and vocal support for Iran?

Iran has been a sponsor for international terrorism for years as they support Hamas, Hezbollah, IS, al-Shabaab and such like.

Many of these terror groups enjoy safe haven in SA – and your government has allowed this. Some of these Iranian-backed forces are active in Africa.

They murder, slaughter and abuse Africans. They are genocidal proxy forces that attack African Christians and also Muslims who do not subscribe to their ideals.

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They act on behalf of Iran – your great Brics ally and friend. By implication, you are the leader of a political party in our parliament that endorses black genocide and you do this in our name.

We never voted for you to support this unspeakable betrayal and genocide of Africa – or to be a proxy for such states.

Known international terrorists and violent criminals are quietly given safe haven in our country. They are free to practice their terror and criminality.

Some are even based not too far from your home in Johannesburg. Under your leadership, South Africa has become an increasingly failing state.

You have allowed the collapse of our law enforcement agencies and intelligence service. Our underfunded armed forces are forced to surrender to rebel forces and it takes months to bring them home.

There are large tracts of ungoverned spaces in our rural and urban areas. What a disgrace, Mr President. Instead of defending and driving the right to life, safety and property, you have instead done the opposite with your policies based on exclusion and disuniting rhetoric.

Populism can never outlive the desires of people to progress. And you then want to be seen as a peacemaker in Africa while challenging the international community with a hollow voice and a no diplomatic or power credibility.

Mr President, are you determined to engineer the collapse of our country and position us as a terror-supporting country?

We can no longer tolerate this self-centred behaviour of those who are expected to lead us into the utopia your government promised and then destroyed.

You and your faction have robbed us of our dignity, pride and unity. It is time for you to leave – and please take your cadres with you.

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