Diplomatic Cyril Ramaphosa finally breaks his silence

For him to finally come out and say that money is driving a wedge between the electorate and the ANC is no small feat.

Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa is seen on stage at the 20th year celebration of Denosa, 5 December 2016, on the lawns of the Union Buildings, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles

It’s an election year for the ANC and the gloves have come off. Most people in the country had given up on Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa ever saying anything of substance publicly against the rot that has set in from the top of their beloved ruling party.

It must have finally dawned on Cyril that a silent presidential campaign might be diplomatic but would leave him inheriting a party that is at odds with the people if he does not bite the bullet and speak out now.

And spoken out he has: publicly saying what every ANC leader knows but was afraid to say: Mcebisi Jonas may have been fired for refusing to accept money and the finance minister’s position when it was offered to him by the Guptas.

Cyril last weekend also spoke about the proverbial elephant in the room (for ANC leaders anyway): the call for the national executive committee of the ANC to revisit the discussion about President Jacob Zuma stepping down. The gloves are indeed off.

It might sound churlish to say that the divisions within the ruling party are what’s good for SA right now, but it’s the truth. Unity for the sake of unity is what has saddled us with a president who has challenged the constitution from all angles, fully knowing that the ruling party would be united behind him.

But the race to replace Zuma at the helm of the ANC has finally brought out a sprinkling of what we hope will become a full dose of courage when it matters from people such as Cyril.

It is significant that on the weekend that the Tripartite Alliance finally died (with the birth of the South African Federation of Trade Unions Saftu and the SACP’s Blade Nzimande reiterating the call for Zuma to step down) the attacks on Zuma’s presidency received a most telling blow from his second-in-command.

For Cyril to finally come out and say that money is driving a wedge between the electorate and the ANC is no small feat.

It is the kind of leadership the country has been waiting for. And while, to a certain extent, this might have come a little late considering the damage that has been done to the country’s economy and democratic institutions, that it’s now out in the public domain is a giant step towards fixing what wrong with South Africa.

Civil society formations such as SaveSA and Freedom Alliance, mooted to give a semblance of unity to anti-Zuma sentiments, would never have the traction they need to effect true change without voices such as Cyril’s. And now they have that shot in the arm to confidently forge ahead with plans to effect meaningful change.

The formation of Saftu and the unannounced death of the Tripartite Alliance might seem like insignificant events now but to the discerning eye, these two events can only bode well for the future of our democratic project.

For years, Cosatu was the only civil society formation that held the power to cause the ruling party discomfort through disagreeing with it – until Zuma’s faction neutralised them.

Now a new worker’s formation exists that is at odds with the corrupt and captured leadership of the president.

Add to that the voice of the deputy president of the country speaking with conviction and, voila, true resistance from within the ranks of the left is restored.