Ramaphosa talks, but it’s the ANC that fails the nation

Nelson Mandela and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, when in office, had seeming polar opposite approaches to their role as president of South Africa.

Mandela – and we don’t mean this in a derogatory way – had a village mentality.

Mbeki, his head full of ideas like the African Renaissance, marched to the beat of a global drum.

In the village mentality of Madiba, the principle of ubuntu – of looking after one another in the age-old African way – meant he went out of his way to bring South Africans together to build national unity.

He may have had the occasional foray on to the international stage, but it was not his focus.

Mbeki, on the other hand, fancied himself as an intellectual and peacemaker, spending time outside the country’s borders while issues – like Aids – spiralled out of control as he refused to permit the use of anti-retroviral drugs.

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Cyril Ramaphosa has fragments of both the Mandela and Mbeki mentality… but, if you ask the average South African, he talks a lot more than he delivers, especially when it comes to the internal “challenges” (word copyrighted by the ANC) of our country.

He is better when it comes to diplomacy, despite what Donald Trump may say.

The successful G20 is proof of that, no matter what AfriForum and Solidarity may say.

Ramaphosa’s biggest failing is that he has failed, dismally, to bring about his illusory “new dawn”.

People in the street think things are as bad as they’ve ever been since 1994, conveniently forgetting about the fiscal rape of the Zuma years.

It’s no surprise that there are those in his own party, the ANC, who would like to see Ramaphosa gone.

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The reality is, though, that as much as they may want to use him as a scapegoat, it is the organisation itself which is useless and rotten.