Steep road ahead – Freedom Front Plus on Ramaphosa win

Political party The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) has congratulated Cyril Ramaphosa and advised him to hit the ground running immediately, Randburg Sun reports.

In a statement released shortly after the announcement on Ramaphosa’s election, Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus, said: “The FF Plus would like to congratulate Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa with his election as the new president of the ANC.

“He has a steep road ahead of him, and the way in which he addresses the numerous challenges will determine if he will succeed in saving South Africa from further decline and ruin.

READ MORE: New hope with Cyril at the helm

“In the short term, Ramaphosa’s election will boost investors’ confidence, and may even prevent a further downgrade to junk status, but if he wants to gain confidence in the long run, he will have to take some drastic steps.”

There are five steps that he will have to take immediately, namely:

1. He will have to recall President Jacob Zuma before February 2018 and deliver the State of the Nation Address himself on 8 February, 2018. As president of the country, he will have to take decisive action and appoint the legal commission to investigate state capture, as was recommended in the report by die former Public Protector (PP).

2. He must execute the High Court’s ruling by replacing the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shaun Abrahams, with someone who is competent and unbiased, like Advocate Thuli Madonsela.

3. He will have to repudiate Zuma’s claims about free higher education in order to relieve the pressure on the Treasury and do away with the false expectations that were created.

4. He must call the nuclear programme to a halt and clear up all the uncertainty in that regard.

5. He will have to reshuffle the Cabinet and replace all the incompetent ministers (rotten apples) with ones that are fit for the job.

“If Ramaphosa does not recall Zuma, his hands will essentially be tied behind his back, and Zuma will have one court case after another so as to keep plundering state assets and ensure that all the rotten-apple ministers are retained.

“That would instantly extinguish the little flame of hope that sparked for our economy and the country will simply keep plodding along as if nothing has changed,” said Groenewald.

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