An emotional Cyril Ramaphosa following his election as President of the African National Congress (ANC) during the party's 54th National Conference on December 18, 2017 at the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg. Ramaphosa came to office promising renewal, integrity and growth. What the country has received is drift, protection of the powerful, and measurable decline, says the writer.
Prof. Sipho Seepe
The jury is in. The verdict is near-unanimous across former ANC insiders, critics, the public and parts of business: Cyril Ramaphosa’s time in office has been an unmitigated political, economic and social disaster.
Leading the criticism is former finance minister Trevor Manuel, one of the economic envoys appointed by Ramaphosa himself. Asked about Ramaphosa’s presidency, Manuel is blunt. “Part of the difficulty in South Africa is that you take on something when you’ve never run anything. Donald Trump has the same problem. Everything he’s touched has been a complete disaster… What is it that he [Ramaphosa] is doing? [He is] visionless. And he doesn’t take decisions.”
Political economist and author Moeletsi Mbeki is equally scalding. “The man has totally failed as a president; he can’t decide on anything…. He was never a leader – if you put him next to Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and even Jacob Zuma… He goes with the flow. He wakes up in the morning and says, ‘which way is the wind blowing’ and ‘I’m going to go that way’.”
