‘Mollycoddled’ Ramaphosa boxed clever at Zondo commission

So much was made of the way President Cyril Ramaphosa was treated during his appearance at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

His appearance was on what role his party played in possibly enabling state capture during former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure.

“It’s a mutual admiration society between the president and the commission” everyone seemed to be screaming.

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Indeed, it seemed to have come to that point when commission chair Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo remarked “you’re the first sitting president to appear before a commission in this country”, falling just short of patting the president on his back.

Evidence leader Paul Pretorius did not do much to help dispel the notion that the president was being treated with kid gloves.

People could be justified in criticising the president’s treatment at the commission but here’s something to remember: this appearance by the president was one as the current leader of the ruling party to explain what happened in an era when he was not party leader.

He could have chosen the easy way out and not testified at all, given the fact that ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe has already appeared on behalf of the party.

This appearance was more of a voluntary one and a charm offensive on the part of the president, who has always wanted to present the ruling party under his leadership as an organisation trying to reform itself.

The charm tactic was a risky one because it is difficult to talk about the state capture years without mentioning his predecessor, whose shadow hangs over everything the commission does.

But such testimony in a commission tasked with unearthing the truth about the systematic looting of public funds would always come across as a president who was ducking and diving to ensure that he did not detonate the only landmine that matters: the truth.

And like the politician that he is, he bobbed and weaved to avoid all the sensitive issues.

The president’s second appearance, this month, could turn out to be more adversarial in nature because he will now be appearing as president of the republic.

He will have to defend his role as deputy president of the country and being a member of the executive during the height of the state capture corruption.

What is bothering people and they are just not able to get to ask him is: “How much of a level of moral culpability are you willing to accept as Cyril Ramaphosa?”

The truth is Ramaphosa was there from the beginning of Zuma’s rule as president until the day he was forced to step down.

As one Economic Freedom Fighters supporter said during the “Zuma Must Fall” frenzy: “They were together in the crooked place.”

The public perceives Zondo to be mollycoddling the president because he hasn’t been asked: “During your ruling party meetings, when it was clear to everyone that Jacob Zuma had sold the government to a Gupta family, did you as Cyril Ramaphosa once stand up to him, look him in the eye and tell him that he is betraying the organisation?”

The country will never know the answers to these questions because the opportunity to ask them was missed. Hopefully, the same will not happen the second time around.