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Not all plain sailing for Ramaphosa

Cape Town – Academics viewed the first one hundred days of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government with cautious optimism, saying that the president made categorical moves to signal his intention to end patronage politics and state capture.

The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business held a panel discussion on the prospects of Ramaphosa’s government and the risks it faced. 

This comes after Ramaphosa secured the resignation of former president Jacob Zuma, announced a new Cabinet and suspended SA Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane. With national elections coming up in 2019, Ramaphosa has the benefit of the levers and state power and time to change perceptions as a campaigning tool.

Independent political analyst Daniel Silke said even though Zuma was expected to suffer setbacks after stepping down as president of the African National Congress, Ramaphosa has made unexpectedly rapid progress in acting to consolidate his power.

READ: SA expects too much from Ramaphosa - expert

“When you look back a year there was no real campaign from Ramaphosa and it was all about NDZ as the heir apparent. After [former finance minister Pravin] Gordhan presented his last budget and the media ran stories on imminent charges against him, Zuma looked as though he was immune to any kind of sanction at all,” said Silke.

Silke said it was important to take a step back and acknowledge that a lot has changed and that rapid movement has been made in government. South Africa has done remarkably well in confronting the past demons, evidenced in the announcement reaffirming the original decision to charge Zuma and the suspension of Moyane, Silke said.

“A lot has been done for a new president who came up on a weak mandate. Moyane’s response to Ramaphosa is quite pointed and in this context it is dangerous to be a reformer. I would give Ramaphosa a cautious, but positive tick,” he said.

“There is a schitzophrenic side to how politics is addressed and a lot of good happens, but questions are raised just as we start to digest the good that is happening. The racial divisions are more marked today than a year ago. It is concerning to see proposed amendments to the Constitution,” he said.

READ: S&P chief says Ramaphosa euphoria must lead to action

Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at UCT’s School of Economics Haroon Bhorat said in order to appreciate the significance of recent developments, it was important to view them in contrast to the largely unchanging events of the past eight years.

“We speak in short term scenarios but in 2010 many of us were gearing up to go to Greenpoint Stadium and Barbara Hogan was fired as public enterprise minister. If this went on for eight years then it cannot be resolved with a quick fix,” said Bhorat.

Bhorat said it was clear that there were stages to recapturing the state at hand under Ramaphosa. SARS and other agencies were taking steady steps towards cleaning up government, he said.

“There are scattered clouds on the new dawn, but we can think of how to do development more creatively. The ratings agencies have moved back a bit and this is a marginal victory but that also means that the restoration of business confidence is back on the cards,” Bhorat said.

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