No easy task to bring Ramaphosa down

One of the most potentially dangerous events in wild Africa is when a cornered, or wounded, buffalo turns to make a stand against its enemies.

The significance of that should not be lost on the political foes of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has taken on the persona of a buffalo in popular idiom.

Although Ramaphosa has the outward appearance of a man who strives to be all things to all people and who seems to be weak and vacillating much of the time, it would be foolish of those who wish to bring him down, or derail his campaign to get the nomination as ANC president at its end-of-year conference, to believe he is anything close to being mortally wounded, politically.

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He is certainly in a pickle, though, after a leaked audio recording had him claiming that he would fall on his own sword if it meant sparing the ANC the embarrassment of admitting it had used public funds for its campaigns.

The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) has given him 10 days to explain himself – and he has just over a week left.

Not only that, but his enemies in the radical economic transformation (RET) faction of the ANC have called in their trusty ally, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, to open a second front against Ramaphosa.

She will investigate a complaint from RET faction member and MP Mervyn Dirks that the president had breached ethical codes by not reporting the abuse of state money he referred to in the leaked recording.

Mkhwebane has lost on a number of previous occasions when she has tried to chide Ramaphosa – and is clearly hoping this time might be different.

Ramaphosa didn’t get to where he is by being a political innocent and also has a thick and resilient hide. So he won’t be easy to bring down.