Fed-up Cyril may pack his bags, plus 5 highlights from ‘Vrye Weekblad’
Here’s what’s hot in the latest edition of the Afrikaans digital weekly
Image: Thapelo Morebudi/Sunday Times
Maybe D-Day has dawned for South Africans who have a soft spot for Cyril Ramaphosa, writes Piet Croucamp in this week’s edition of Vrye Weekblad. Here is an extract:
I suspect the ANC leader no longer thinks it’s that important to be president. If he could freely and without a care hand over the baton, he wouldn’t hesitate. He is battle-weary and fatigued. If it becomes clear that SARS will make a case of money laundering, tax evasion and covering up a financial crime, Ramaphosa will pack his bags.
In political terms, Ramaphosa is not a street fighter or an iron man. He is probably fed up with the ANC and SA.
The back-stabbing, infighting and despair are wearing him down. The cracks in his armour are, however, also showing. He can’t really escape the Phala Phala incident. While I couldn’t care less about Arthur Fraser’s version of events, amaBhungane probably has a finger on the pulse and it doesn’t look good. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
South Africans have known for a while that Ramaphosa doesn’t have the guts to get rid of Gwede Mantashe and Fikile Mbalula, and confidence in him is on the wane.
The ANC leadership contest at the end of the year will be a morbid dress rehearsal for everything that can go wrong in a democracy. If Ramaphosa is still on the scene in May 2024, there will probably be a thin-lipped stability at the 55th leadership conference in December. If, however, the president leaves only a bloody trail behind, the next president of Africa’s oldest liberation movement will be elected amid unparalleled upheaval. The theatre will be destructive and messy.
Ramaphosa knows the ANC can’t rescue itself and has just about no chance of an absolute majority in the 2024 elections.