Ramaphosa says he’s applying lessons learned from Madiba

President Cyril Ramaphosa says his consultative leadership approach is a style he copied from Nelson Mandela – and he believes it will work.

Ramaphosa said, like Madiba, he would like to see people he dealt with feeling respected and that any decision he made against an individual had to belong to the collective.

The near 50-50 electoral outcome of the 54th ANC national conference had also forced him to consult both sides when making decisions.

“I learned from Madiba, who liked to take people along in his decision-making. That is for me the best lesson I learned from Madiba. He was a great mobiliser, who went to his detractors and even the opposition. He did this well, with dexterity and ability, but he was clear about what he wanted,” he said.

Ramaphosa believed it was demeaning not to take the views of other people into account.

“When we get people engaged, they accept the outcome because they were given a chance,” he said during his first meeting with editors and political journalists affiliated to the South African National Editors’ Forum at Tuynhuys in Cape Town last week.

Ramaphosa said all his ministers had accepted his vision, and did not foresee a rebellion against him from within the ANC.

Ramaphosa conceded there was no doubt “the wheels had come off” with regards to state-owned enterprises and state capture.

“Some of these things happened in a sequential way. After that there was a deluge. But we are where we are today because we took action. This must never happen again. We now need to prepare for the work ahead. We want a clean government,” he said.

The president was confident he was on the right path to implement his promises on corruption and ending state capture, and had shifted heads in SOEs and government departments.

“We may have made mistakes, but we will get better,” he promised.

He stressed the importance of the independence of the Reserve Bank as a structure that monitored monetary policy. If the country was to drive a smooth and successful economy, all structures that dealt with the economy should be autonomous and independent.

“It’s important in a modern economy that such structures are given independence,” he said.

However, he said, statements could still emerge regarding the independence or nonindependence of the bank by some in the ANC and its allies, because the party remained a broad church organisation. But it worried him that there were many voices and messages emanating from the same organisation.

The ANC was recently forced to backtrack on its plan to nationalise the Reserve Bank at the 11th hour, prior to parliament approving an ANC-sponsored motion on the issue.

This move was criticised by leftist groups such as the Economic Freedom Fighters. Ramaphosa also announced that a number of investors had expressed interest in South Africa.

The president himself had been invited to an investors’ conference in Nairobi, Kenya, to sell his investment ideas.

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