How gullible do you think we are, Mr President?

One thing we hoped we would never see from President Cyril Ramaphosa is the playing of the “plausible deniability” card or, to put it another way, the “firepool excuse”.

Yet, that is what he did on Wednesday in parliament when, with a straight face, he said he had not been informed of the identity of the senior politicians accused by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter of involvement in corruption at the power utility.

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Ramaphosa said that neither national security advisor Sydney Mufamadi, nor Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, had briefed him on the issue.

How gullible do you think we are, Mr President? Two senior members of your party are implicated in looting Eskom and you do not demand their names, as you are entitled do to as head of state and party?

Back in 2018 – if you can remember that far back, sir – you had an enormous pool of goodwill. Ordinary South Africans wanted a “new dawn” and you offered them that.

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Now, what we have is darkness – a dark present, thanks to load shedding and a dark future as Eskom, and our economy, look almost impossible to rescue. Most of the time, you are missing in action. We deserve better, Mr President.