Ramaphosa a better tactician than Zuma

Cyril “Mr Clean” Ramaphosa has proven to be a better tactician than his predecessor Jacob Zuma – silently working him and his allies, Ace Magashule and Carl Niehaus, out of the ANC system legally and procedurally as he cleans up the governing party.

The latest developments around Zuma and Magashule are seen as heralding an opportunity for the post-Nasrec ANC leadership to restore the party to its status as a “glorious movement” and to implement Ramaphosa’s long-awaited economic plan.

The stumbling blocks towards that vision are beginning to fall. Zuma’s application for a stay of arrest failed in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg and the High Court in Johannesburg dismissed Magashule’s attempt to have his suspension by Luthuli House nullified.

The ANC put up a strong defence against Magashule in a move to stamp its authority against ill-discipline in the party. On the other hand, it did not oppose Zuma’s stay of arrest attempt, a state matter that did not affect the party.

In a week of drama, Zuma’s footsoldier, Carl Niehaus, spokesperson of the disbanded uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association, was also slapped with a suspension for speaking out of turn about the party.

To top it all, the police arrested Niehaus the following day for breaking lockdown regulations in Estcourt, KwaZulu Natal. And the ANC’s self-cleansing doesn’t end with the removal of rogue elements.

The party is out to stop the deafening noise around the so-called radical economic transformation (RET) faction, which the ANC dismissed as an “empty slogan” with “no message”.

The Zuma faction chanced the RET policy towards the 2017 ANC conference and blindly pursued the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank. But this was met with fierce resistance from the Ramaphosa camp, with party economic transformation sub-committee chair Enoch Godongwana unequivocal stating it “won’t happen”.

Zuma, who was said to be a champion of RET, never uttered a single word about the policy throughout his nine years in power – until close to the Nasrec conference. He had the opportunity to implement it as both the ANC and the country’s president, but could not because it never existed.

Even the Congress of SA Trade Unions, which strongly backed it in Polokwane, decided to ditched him, claiming he falsely promised them a dummy of pro-worker policies.

Instead, Zuma continued with neoliberal policies, forcing the socialist federation into a Faustian pact with capitalist Ramaphosa.

Zuma had been hailed as a chess player – perceived as a strategist – but it became clear he only used his tactics to dodge the law. The real tactician was Ramaphosa, who silently and indirectly worked Zuma, Magashule and Niehaus out, using party rules.

Ramaphosa took a back seat in the unfolding saga, letting the national executive committee and its substructure, the national working committee, to do the dirty work. And his inputs became a collective decision, in the ANC tradition.

He is cracking the whip but, like an ox span driver, is doing so from behind the wagon. Slowly, but surely, the ANC is making progress in dealing with ill-discipline using legal means.

The jubilation after Magashule’s suspension, his and Zuma’s court losses and Niehaus’ suspension, was indicative that even South Africans had had enough of the infighting and could not wait to see them exiting the political stage and kept behind bars.