ANC hounds would make mincemeat of Ramphele: iLIVE

I just hope that the rumour about Dr Mampela Ramphele forming a new political party does not become fact.

She has been very effective in criticising the ANC's numerous shortcomings, and has probably made more of an impact than DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.

When Mazibuko makes cogent comments about our president or the ANC's performance, the standard reply by ANC members is to heckle, guffaw like clowns or call her a coconut.

But, with time, Mazibuko, will become a more powerful political voice.

Ramphele, on the other hand, is astute in the board room but her thin skin will make her an easy target for the ANC hounds in parliament.

Politics is about diplomacy, about being thick-skinned and, in this country, about lying adroitly to the electorate without blinking an eye to win elections at all costs.

There is not that much chance that middle-income blacks in the cities and urban areas are going to vote for Ramphele.

In most modern democracies, the well educated and wealthy are the most apathetic about politics as long as their standard of living is guaranteed.

The ANC relies on the ignorant masses to get into power and uses big business to fund its campaigns.

Our president has learnt the gift of the gab.

He trashed his closest rival, the affable and demure Kgalema Motlanthe, and managed to convince international investors in Davos that it was safe to invest in South Africa, despite Marikana and Susan Shabangu's threats to big mining houses about licensing.

Politics is a dirty game and not everybody has the constitution for it. Ramphele is known only by the educated middle class and the veterans of our struggle. The youth, and rural and township dwellers, do not know her at all.

People might enter politics, as with so many other vocations, with the noble intention of wanting to serve humanity only to end up serving themselves once they are in. Politicians are well known for changing allegiances at the drop of a hat.

Ramphele would do well to keep the government on its toes with her critical views and carry on with her charitable work rather than be devoured like a hapless poodle by the trained Rottweilers of the ANC.