South Africa Midrand Elections results 02 June 2024. President Cyril Ramaphosa gives a speech at the IEC results presentation. Picture: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers.
President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke sensibly and eloquently after the election results were announced at National Results Operation Centre. But if you didn’t know that the president had the gift of the gab, a man of all talk and no action, you would have been impressed.
He said the free and fair elections were a victory for democracy. The people had spoken and whether “we like it or not we must respect their wishes”. As the results reflect the will of the people, he called on the various parties to set aside their difference and find common ground for the good of the country and its people.
Hmm, sounds like a selfless, noble leader. Yet, in the 30 years the ANC has been ruling the roost, it has always put the party first. It has trampled on the people, ignoring their cries and wishes. Now that the masses have turned their backs on the party and made it lose its majority for the first time in the country’s history, it has to swallow a bitter pill and come down from its high perch. It has to become realistic, form a coalition and govern the country with a suitable partner.
All well said and done. But once the parties are back in the corridors of power, the wishes of the voters will be all but forgotten. They will take a back seat as fierce and intense negotiations go on late into the night. Uppermost in the politicians’ minds will be how best to secure a lucrative deal for themselves and their parties. Juicy carrots will be dangled and there will be much floor-crossing and hopping into bed with whichever partner who entices them with gifts and posts. Yes, the dirty political game of horse-trading would have begun.
Many people have caught up with Ramaphosa. They know he is not a sincere man and that he speaks with a forked tongue. In the five years he has been in office, he has been dragging his heels on various matters that needed decisive action to pull the country out of the economic and social morass.
As the most powerful man in the country, he could have done it with just a stroke of the pen. But he dithered and smiled and, instead, hid his dollars under a cushion in Phala Phala. Didn’t he say before the elections, when load-shedding was wreaking havoc on the people and the economy, that cadre deployment was here to stay?
Some will say: “Let’s give him another chance.” You’ll be a fool again. Politicians are a mongrel breed. They have no conscience and cannot be trusted for a dime.
T Markandan Kloof
The Star
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