Positive start for Ramaphosa as he doesn’t ‘bring scandals into the office’

‘Get ready for the Ramaphosa presidency, so declares the campaign song, ‘get ready for a decade of non-stop action’, is the implied rider.

The order of his readiness is equally bold. The great expectation is that he will roll up his sleeves to make a dip test with a view to cleanse the entire government system of corruption, particularly state capture spearheaded by private interests in collusion with public representatives much against taking their respective oaths for the offices they had pledged to act honourably.

Talk amongst those close to the Ramaphosa campaign trail indicate that if elected, he will put his finger on ending factionalism and infighting among ANC members. “We will ensure that those responsible for dragging the organisation in this mud are identified and neutralised. The state capture architects will have to be punished with imprisonment,” one of the members said.

The fervent campaigners believe that once in office, Ramaphosa’s presidency, for at least a decade, must work hard to heal the wounds within the ANC, grow the country’s economy and embark on an ongoing programme to fight corruption in government.

What should not be missed though is that the healing will not be limited to the ANC as by then, Ramaphosa would be head of state responsible for the entire nation equally wounded by the bruising factional battles of the party. He wants to put the house in order.

Whether that counsel comes across as valid for consideration the urgency that seems to matter most is that Ramaphosa is expected to concentrate on economic recovery.

“We trust him and we know that he has the ability to put this country’s economy onto a growth trajectory,” is the proposition.

“Our campaign is not about having Cyril elected, but it’s about fixing the ANC and the country,” the member told The Citizen.

This view was echoed by political analyst, Dr Somadoda Fikeni who said any leader of the ANC needed to push a two pronged approach of healing of both the ANC and the country.

“Cyril and who-ever is elected, will start on a positive note because they don’t bring scandals into the office, unlike Zuma who has been haunted by these things throughout his presidency,” Fikeni said.

Fikeni said the message that had been passed by Ramaphosa and his supporters was that of fighting corruption. He said this is the matter that must be addressed because there was general anger that the ANC was not confronting or acting against Zuma and his allies on corruption.

On this score, Ramaphosa lobbyists made it clear that corruption and its accompanying state capture would be punished.  Throughout his campaign, the deputy president emphasised that the state capture must be probed and those responsible for it prosecuted. He had stopped short of naming and shaming them.

In the ten-year period, Ramaphosa will engage different role-players including business, labour and civil society to turn the country’s economy around. The programme would start soon with the beginning of his term if elected to the hot seat in December.

One of his officials prays for the election of a formidable team of office bearers to collectively work with him including a visionary secretary-general to drive the process from Luthuli House party headquarters.

Unlike some other candidates in the presidential race, Ramaphosa is called upon to change gear up to direct a distinct campaign that displays less reliance on slogans or using proxies to campaign on his behalf.

“We try to make it clear that it should not be about this individual that must be elected, but about the renewal of the ANC and restoration of the values of the ANC and the location of Cyril within that space,” another member said.

As a start towards renewal, Ramaphosa will initiate a target-driven programme of action (POA) aimed at healing the 105-year old ANC. The first task would be a focus on building unity among ANC members and building the party structures.

This would involve using old fashioned methods to recruit and grow its membership to the pre-1994 levels. With an eye on the 2019 general election, Ramaphosa is expected to direct his energies to lead a concerted effort to restore the trust of the people in the 105-year old former liberation movement.

“You are not going to fix the ANC in December, but what you can do is to make it move in the right direction by creating a space for the majority of ANC members who have a vision for the party to come forward irrespective of faction or political alignment within the party before the conference.

“We have to go back to the old fashion ways of building the ANC. It might not take ten years, it will be a process and Cyril Ramaphosa is in a good position to do that. He is an organisation-builder since his days in the NUM,” a Limpopo based official said.

Ramaphosa’s ANC revival is aimed at producing vibrant structures at branch, regional and provincial levels and wrest the branches from being hijacked by vote-buying lobbyists with no loyalty to anyone but ‘follow power’. Some of those lobbyists stood by president Thabo Mbeki but quickly changed colour and distinguished themselves as 100% Zuma once he beat Mbeki in 2007 Polokwane Conference.

They evidently are flexing their ambivalent muscles to stay in power whether or not  Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Ramaphosa becomes a winner.

Against the rapacious lobbyists the official insisted: “Branches must stand on their own, we must make it harder for personalities with bad agendas to penetrate our structures.”

Under the Ramaphosa’s leadership, the ANC would strive to change the way its leadership was elected so as to give the branches more powers and final say in party decisions. “We don’t want a situation where the NEC is elected by four leaders (at regional and provincial levels).”

Ramaphosa understood that the root cause of factionalism and power struggles within the party was competition for scarce resources. “We have to remove the situation for the abuse of public resources at all levels. If the things that people compete for are not there, there will be no need to fight or for factions to thrive in the ANC,” he said.

Ramaphosa believes the ANC’s policy of radical economic transformation is the best way forward. But his vision for economic transformation is not to fight with big business but to engage them and make them understand economic recovery imperatives.

“In reality we need economic transformation, and CR is the best to lead that. He is able to engage both business and labour if you consider his position in Nedlac, he is able to bring the social partners together.

“But there is lack of trust in the current administration by both business and labour. That is why there is low business and investor confidence presently,” he said.

Ramaphosa believes real economic growth and transformation would happen once there was investment, which would address job creation and economic growth. The youth unemployment in particular and joblessness in general are areas that could be addressed if investment mainly in manufacturing was nurtured.

“There is lack of appreciation of the reality about the economy presently. If you want to achieve radical economic transformation, you have to go to the investors and ask them to invest in the economy and go to the rating agencies and convince them how the country will be able to honour its debt,” he said.

“Once you have investors coming and the economic growing, you can say to business that change your procurement methods to favour small business because you have more money in your coffers,” the member added.

Ramaphosa is punted as the only leader who can articulate an economic vision better because he understood those levers of the economy better than others. He is aware that his government would have to push business into a faster transformation mode so that economy did not stay in the hands of a few.

He did it when he convinced business to take unemployed graduate youth for a year-long internship in their companies. “This was pushed by the Deputy President and it happened despite the current situation in the country,” said a lobbyist.

Fikeni said there was no doubt that Ramaphosa is someone in whom business, labour and even investors had much confidence. “Business people seem to be more comfortable with Cyril as he was a businessman and also labour are familiar with him as a former labour leader. These are some of his strength,” Fikeni said.

“No leader could hope to succeed in growing the country’s economy without raising business and investor confidence in government. You can’t antagonise them forever,” Fikeni added.

In the next few months towards the December conference, Ramaphosa will speak more to the issues around his vision for the country’s economy including dealing with job creation, for which he believes the growing of manufacturing was the key. “We have to build factories that will not only contribute to economic growth but employ many of our people.”

-ericn@citizen.co.za