Say what you will about President Cyril Ramaphosa, he is the last remaining statesman in the ANC and, in recent weeks, it showed.
He reminded South Africa of his potential when he led the African peace mission to Russia and Ukraine, represented South Africa at the summit for a new global financing pact in Paris and signed an agreement for a $1bn green energy fund with Denmark and the Netherlands (ignoring the apparent recalcitrance of his energy minister, Gwede Mantashe).
In a widely circulated video shot at the Paris summit, Ramaphosa had his host, President Emmanuel Macron, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as he described the resentment and disappointment felt by countries in the Global South during the Covid pandemic, when they struggled to access vaccines because countries in the North were hogging them.
When African countries sought to manufacture their own, there was pushback. “We felt like beggars when it came to vaccine availability,” Ramaphosa said. “We received droppings from the table … and that generated a lot of resentment, and it got worse — when we said we want to manufacture our own and went to the WTO [World Trade Organisation], there was enormous resistance.
“We said: ‘What’s more important: lives or profits?’”
It was a proud moment as the president demonstrated what a far cry he is from the giggling Casanova who represented South Africa on the international stage for nearly a decade from 2009.
During the African peace mission, Ramaphosa presented a 10-point plan to Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg and to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine. It was a crucial intervention for South Africa, in that it shifted perceptions — however slightly — that the country’s professions of nonalignment are a charade. Ramaphosa has a track record in conflict resolution, including Codesa and the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Yet he is constantly let down by his close aides. Take the saga of the planeload of security officials and journalists who were denied entry to Poland because of bungled clearances and permits.
His head of security, Maj-Gen Wally Rhoode, should have seen to it that all the paperwork was in place — instead he blamed Polish officials for refusing to accept copies of documents and insisting on the originals.
Rhoode remains Ramaphosa’s head of security despite questions over the way he handled the theft of more than half-a-million dollars from Phala Phala. A preliminary report from the public protector reportedly found no wrongdoing on the part of the president in the Phala Phala imbroglio, but did not clear Rhoode.
Then there is Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, who contradicted his boss when he assured reporters no Russian missiles had fallen on Kyiv while the African peace mission was in the capital. The Ukrainian media dubbed Magwenya the “biggest liar in the world”.
We hope to go back to those two places, and next time around, we will make sure that the media is properly catered for when it comes to logistics and travelling
— President Cyril Ramaphosa
It was hardly a shining moment for Magwenya and could easily have been avoided.
Minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni is yet another hapless new entry in the ranks of amateurish denizens of the Union Buildings. In a curious move, she was elevated to the post in the March cabinet reshuffle and has so far used the portfolio to demonstrate her lack of tact, grace and political nous.
It was always a risky appointment. For instance, a court judgment in 2020 implicated her in tender irregularities at the Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality in Limpopo during her tenure as municipal manager in 2009. And she was accused in the Zondo commission report of failing to perform her fiduciary duties in the axing of three Denel officials, dismissals that paved the way for the Gupta family to get their hands on the arms maker. Chief justice Raymond Zondo found her explanation for her actions “made no sense”.
She put her foot in it last week when she told a post-cabinet news conference that in light of the way the media had failed to cover the peace mission in the way she would have preferred, it might be better not to invite them again.
Ramaphosa quickly set the record straight.
“I am sad that the journalists who came to cover the talks, in the end, were not able to do that,” he said last weekend at the ANC’s Western Cape conference.
“I would like to see how we can avoid situations like that because the media is there to inform the people of South Africa and we should give them maximum opportunity to do so, whether they cover us positively or not, but we should let the media do its work in all situations.
“We hope to go back to those two places [Ukraine and Russia], and next time around we will make sure that the media is properly catered for when it comes to logistics and travelling,” News24 quoted the president as saying.
Ramaphosa could have five more years in office — to truly craft a legacy worthy of his potential, he should look carefully at those around him. They may in the end be his undoing.
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