Ramaphosa knows he must deliver… or face a revolt

The most eloquent comment on the shambles of a State of the Nation address (Sona) by President Cyril Ramaphosa came from House of Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise, who tried in vain to bring the unruly EFF to order.

“South Africa is not very proud of us tonight,” she said.

That was after the EFF won a tactical, if not strategic, victory in forcing Modise into making an unprecedented move – suspending the business of the house even before Ramaphosa had uttered a word.

ANC and opposition MPs were united in their condemnation of the antics of the EFF, which amounted to contempt for parliament and for the constitution, they said. Yet there was no denying that the EFF’s cheap publicity stunt – attacking first former president FW de Klerk and then State Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan – achieved its short-term aim of grabbing the attention of the nation.

However, the EFF may well regret its blatant populist politicking in the long run for two reasons. The MPs may have their salaries docked as punishment for flouting parliament’s rules and they may have also overplayed their hand with moderate South Africans, who have already seen so much time and money wasted in this country by grandstanding politicians.

Most South Africans, we believe, would have listened to Ramaphosa because they believe that, despite his flaws (and these are not minor), he is the man to whom the country looks for leadership and a way out of our current economic, political and social morass.

While there were plenty of platitudes in Ramaphosa’s address, as well as a lot of skirting over our current horrifying reality, there was still more of a sense of purpose than we have heard in previous blandishments from his mouth.

He says the government will tackle the power problem by continuing to work towards splitting Eskom into three divisions – but importantly, he broke the monopoly of the corporation on power provision by allowing others to become involved. That is a breath of fresh, private enterprise air in the fog of current ANC socialist dogma.

He also committed to improving education from the lowest to the highest levels and to improving student accommodation.

His plans to tackle youth unemployment in a number of ways, including through a type of “national service” programme was also positive news, as was the commitment to plough R10 billion into businesses owned by women.

Consumers will be happy to hear his commitment to tackle monopolies, although it remains to be seen whether his intention to force production of more than 1,000 items into the small business sector is viable, or will do more harm than good.

There are worrying aspects, too. Ramaphosa said land expropriation without compensation is still on the cards but, deflected away from the details by focusing instead on plans to release 700 000 hectares of stateowned land for redistribution. The National Health Insurance is also going full steam ahead, despite predictions from experts that it could be a costly failure.

Plans to set up a “sovereign wealth fund” and a “state bank” have also worried financial experts because these could become rich piggy banks for ANC comrades to loot.

This time, though, Ramaphosa is well aware he has to deliver. Otherwise, he might face a worse revolt than just that of the EFF.

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