Ramaphosa can’t be blamed for everything going wrong in SA – analyst

There is far too much blame being attributed to President Cyril Ramaphosa for the country’s current woes, as South Africans search for a “messianic figure” to save us from the challenges of governance and societies ills.

This was the opinion of the Director of Programmes at the Auwal Socio-economic Research Institute (Asri) Ebrahim Fakir, who said President Ramaphosa cannot be blamed for everything that is currently wrong in the country.

Fakir was speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday about the blame that has been showered on Ramaphosa by political commentators and analysts about the state of the country.

He believes some of this may be misplaced.

“We have this idea that the leader must be a messianic figure who can solve, and do, and take charge for every single thing in society, and no leader can do that. It’s impossible. There are serious structural constraints to what Ramaphosa can do.”

Fakir said there are three structural constraints on Ramaphosa’s shoulders which precludes him from instituting certain actions.

Balance of power within his party not always favourable

“So, the president of ANC is not all powerful. He has to work through the top six, through the NEC, through the national working committee, and in that detail lies the devil, because while the balance in the NEC might be in his favour, he’s not completely so.

“So, he has to contend with other people and the factions are no longer static, they’re no longer forming around certain ideas. They are now constantly shifting and its very difficult for anyone including him to work out who stands where, and how, and in what formation.”

“The second set of constraints are in the state, in that people think he can do all kinds of things. So out of the Zondo commission, ‘there must have been so much prosecutions already and this should have happened and that would have happened.’

“And its not possible for him to overstep the authority and the bounds which limit his ability to exercise power. He’s not a complete authoritarian president, and our constitution places limits on those.”

“The third area which are social and inherited problems in society and the economy, which we are expecting one man or even one organisation to have solved, and these are all problems which have been inherited from apartheid. Firstly, but more importantly, problems which have come about because of contradictory and inappropriate policy which was set up incidentally, funny enough, by former ANC administrations.”

“Now he has to carry the can for all of that but he is not solely the person at fault or responsible for it.”

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Fakir, however, said there are some things that Ramaphosa is blameworthy for, particularly in the African National Congress (ANC).

“Where he perhaps didn’t take a strong enough stand as he should, particularly on issues of internal discipline, sometime on resolutions which were taken at the ANC’s conference, which need to be streamlined into state and government decision making, and with dealing and enforcing internal rules and discipline of the ANC.”

“That is people who should be stepping aside, not making themselves available for particular positions within the ANC,” said Fakir.

Fakir said people ignore the fact that Ramaphosa has tried to do what he can do within his power and authority.

“Where of course he’s blameworthy is that endemic into the organisation, he is part of the ANC. So, this is an ANC problem, is that that they have rendered their own president a person who is caught between paranoia and paralysis. And paranoia is increasingly animating and characterising who and what the ANC is and what its becoming, because there’s conspiracies and hysteria and everyone’s out to get everyone. Everyone’s looking over their back all the time and its impossible to get anything done.”

Endemic problems predate Ramaphosa

“The problem is fundamentally the ANC and he then has to realise that even if and when he goes to the elective conference at the end of this year, he will still be bedevilled by these problems of paranoia and paralysis, because he’ll continue looking over his back,” Fakir said.

Fakir said economic growth, economic problems, massive unemployment and deepening inequality are structural issues which were endemic in the economy before Ramaphosa became president.

He said despite the high level of trust Ramaphosa enjoys compared to the ANC and in government, the president is limited by how much he can do in terms of more radical policy.

“The level of trust to be able to implement radical policy you need high levels of trust and confidence which in the state are extremely low despite his high levels of enjoying greater confidence. So, he can’t even engage in more radical policy which will see greater redistribution.”

Time to reconfigure the state

Fakir adds that there needs to be a whole reconfiguring of the state, and Ramaphosa has to be much more decisive about people who are not in line with the agenda he wants to pursue, and get rid of them despite the political costs it comes with.

“He has to no longer keep balancing the different factions and interests inside the ANC to keep them happy. If there happens to be a break or split, so be it, and he shouldn’t be shy to be the president who dies over that. Maybe that’s his fear, but that is now a misplaced fear because it literally has come to a point where he has to choose, either the ANC or the country.”

Fakir said that was the choice Ramaphosa was left with in 2017 when he chose the ANC over the country and that did not work for him.

“He now has to choose the country,” Fakir said.

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