The devil you know: Transition from Zuma to Ramaphosa hardly taught us anything

When Ramaphosa came to power, many were so excited to see the back of [former president Jacob] Zuma that it didn’t really matter what Cyril brought to the table.

To top it off, he was wealthy, a businessman, and seemingly had ideas to make the country great again.

Only his line was less Trumpian and more self-centred, which may seem impossible but “send me” may only rival the UK’s hopeful #ReadyForRishi in terms of terrible policy sloganing.

Somehow, the transition out of Zuma hardly taught us anything.

Every time I check Twitter there are calls for Cyril to leave and I bet if the DA tried a no-confidence motion now, they’d have better success than they did with uBaba.

Yeah, Cyril’s presidency has been a disaster area.

It’s undone the strengthening of the rand which came upon his election. It’s undone any progress ever made in fighting municipal rot.

One need only drive through any part of the Eastern Cape and you’ll be tempted to acknowledge that we were better off under Cde HIV-Does-Not-Cause-Aids.

What a time that was!

Petrol was sub-R10 and the power going off was somewhat of an adventurous occasion.

South Africa is just breeding weak leadership. It doesn’t matter who we put in charge until we fix the things that affect their decision-making.

So cool.

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We’ll get rid of Cyril like we did Zuma, like we did Mbeki.

And then…?

At some point, you have to admit that if Cyril gets recalled, we’ve had our last three presidents recalled during term and that should be telling of a failing of something greater.

Okay, I ignored 228 days of Motlanthe but who doesn’t?

Perhaps it tells of the failure of the ruling party.

Perhaps it tells of the failings of an opposition who struggle to oppose.

Perhaps it’s even telling of the failings of democracy.

Whatever it is, getting rid of Cyril is no more an answer to South Africa’s problems than wiping the sin tax from booze is the answer to a broke alcoholic’s problems.

If we had a problem-solver to replace Cyril, then yeah, sure, but the point isn’t getting rid of the bad manager.

Because your team is still going to be on the field.

The point is to replace the bad manager with a better one. Unfortunately, South Africa doesn’t seem to have any presidential Jürgen Klopp waiting in the wings.

One day, I may come to support Cyril, but today is not that day.

Today is the day that we acknowledge that if you want the man to go, you need to recommend somebody better and it simply isn’t enough to be a TikTok teenager and say “literally anybody”.

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We did that twice already… and it’s not gone well.

When it comes to replacing the president, you have to know what you want.

It doesn’t help to simply be unhappy with what they’re doing and want to get rid of them.

You can dislike Cupcake as much as the next person but before you call for his head, have some idea of who’s head is going to be next on your armchair version of presidential survivor.

There simply isn’t anybody worthy of delivering the presidency we need anywhere close enough to the position politically to warrant a replacement of Cupcake, no matter how awful his presidency may be turning out to be.

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So yeah, call for him to go or don’t; it probably won’t change a thing.

If you’re interested in having a better country, your focus is better spent in places where the replacement of the leading mayor, ward councillor or even CEO will deliver the results you want.

As far as changing the president, try this: write down five things you know about Cyril’s policy positions that you don’t like and how your chosen replacement will fix that.

I’ll bet most people calling for his head will get stuck on step one.