Reports about Ramaphosa’s ‘affairs’ appear to backfire

Just when his enemies thought they had delivered the killer punch against ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa with a news expose about his sex life, it looks like the strategy has backfired.

The smear campaign has infuriated a number of those who were sitting on the fence in the rivalry between Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for the ANC presidency, to the extent that they now seem to have come over to Ramaphosa’s side.

Ramaphosa has received sympathy and vital support from influential ANC leaders who have vowed to defend him all the way to the highest office in the land.

Among those who pinned their colours to Ramaphosa’s mast is Jackson Mthembu, who has vowed to ensure that Ramaphosa is elected as the next ANC president at the ANC elective national conference in December.

Mthembu, who spoke to The Citizen as an ANC branch member, said Ramaphosa was the only hope to rescue the ruling party from its current political crisis and to clean the country of corruption.

He vowed to defend Ramaphosa against the smear campaign, which he said would boost his standing in December. He was reacting to the weekend report by The Sunday Independent, which alleged Ramaphosa used his wealth to prey on multiple women, including university students.

Another senior ANC member who has come out in full support of Ramaphosa is Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla.

In a Twitter comment, Phaahla said the revelations about Ramaphosa were done by people who had run out of input and were looking for cheap shots.

“This is an attempt by very desperate people who cannot compete on the political issues on what is wrong in the movement and the country,” Phaahla said.

Political analyst André Duvenhage said the dirty tricks campaign against Ramaphosa had been unleashed by senior members in the ANC to discredit and stop the momentum building up around the deputy president’s campaign for the party’s top leadership spot.

But the Ramaphosa would survive what Duvenhage termed “a storm in a teacup” waged by his opponents.

While dirty tricks were not a new phenomenon in South Africa, the timing of their release, and how the information could have been accessed, were interesting, Duvenhage said.

According to Mthembu, Ramaphosa was being targeted because he dared to stand for what was right. Ramaphosa’s enemies wanted to malign him and dirty his image so that he was not nominated by branches, he added.

“But our branches cannot be fooled, they can see that this is a political agenda to tarnish the image of the deputy president because he has undertaken to renew the ANC. He vowed to return the ANC to its glory days,” Mthembu said.

“We will defend him, we want to deal with those who plunder public resources through the state-owned enterprises.”

Despite the smear campaign, they would ensure that he emerged victorious at the ANC national conference because the branches were convinced he was being victimised.

Mthembu said he had successfully mobilised his branch to nominate Cyril.

“We will ensure that Cyril will enter the highest office of the ANC; we need this clean-sweeping person called Ramaphosa. This is one person who will rebuild the ANC. We can’t allow him to be victimised,”said Mthembu.

The campaign against Ramaphosa was bound to fail, as it did before. Mthembu cited recent reports where Ramaphosa was accused of abusing his former wife, who subsequently came forward to deny the claim.

“They have tried before and failed. I don’t see this sleazy smear campaign succeeding.

“This is a factional agenda that will be defeated,” Mthembu said.

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– ericn@citizen.co.za