Is this Ramaphosa’s 9/11 moment?

Could Covid-19 have helped President Cyril Ramaphosa achieve his “9/11 moment” a la George W Bush style to ride the crest of a crisis wave that gave him an upper hand over his opponents?

The lesson of the 9/11 event for America was that it came unexpectedly and at a time when the former US president faced a political crisis with the electorate gunning for his head. But Bush’s military response against the terrorists behind the attacks forced an overnight change of mind by the Americans as they rallied behind him in a show of patriotism.

An influential ANC member, who preferred to remain anonymous, believed that indeed the coronavirus was a godsend for Ramaphosa’s political fortunes. He said his imposition of stringent measures and the subsequent lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus and the overwhelming positive response he received made him invincible politically.

He said Ramaphosa’s enemies within the ruling party were now looking for new excuses to deal with him. Ramaphosa was lauded for having done a commendable job in handling the coronavirus crisis.

“His performance has shut down the JZ faction, now they want to capitalise on the WMC (white monopoly capital), about Rupert and Oppenheimer forgetting that people see a donation,” said the party source.

He referred to the criticism labelled against Ramaphosa for getting support from the Rupert and the Oppenheimer families who each donated R1 billion to support small businesses during the crisis.

The politician said the fact that Ramaphosa’s ministers were consistently working as a team against the scourge is another plus for the president.

The politician’s statement came a week after the ANC postponed its scheduled national general council, where Ramaphosa’s party detractors planned a palace coup – using his alleged failure to nationalise the SA Reserve Bank as an excuse.

These sentiments were backed by political analyst Ralph Mathekga, who said Ramaphosa’s enemies were bound to fail, especially in this time of crisis as anything he did would be supported by people.

“This is an unprecedented crisis and usually people rally behind the leader in a situation like this. Ramaphosa is coming out as being in control and in charge. He is very strong now, he might as well go ahead and do things he wouldn’t do generally. He has strong political mileage now, he must just be a coordinator of that,” Mathekga said.

The analyst said it would be political suicide for Ramaphosa’s opponents to raise issues against him at this point in time. “Here is a political truce, a political ceasefire where political leaders have stopped challenging each other to focus on the disaster that has befallen the nation.”

The ANC politician said a lesson needed to be learned from the post-election environment when Ramaphosa took over from Jacob Zuma.

“Not long after the bubble burst and the economy went down, the electorate attacked him. But it’s difficult with the pandemic because he isn’t in control but scientists are in charge,” the ANC source said.

Ramaphosa declared a 21-day lockdown which would be policed by the SAPS assisted by SA National Defence Force members.

The lockdown, which came into effect at midnight on Thursday, restricts the movement of the people, while it allows emergency and essential services to operate.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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