Before judging Cyril‚ count to 100 and think of Zuma

On Saturday‚ Cyril Ramaphosa will have been in office for 100 days.

On that day‚ a legion of politicians‚ economists‚ journalists and columnists will weigh his achievements against his shortcomings and tell us How He Is Doing.

I will leave the hardcore political insights to my more qualified colleagues‚ but I suspect that two more or less opposed verdicts will emerge: that Ramaphosa is fatally hamstrung by a partially captured ANC and is doing too little‚ too slowly; and that he has done some subtle but strategic heavy lifting that will become the foundations of something much more impressive and progressive in the next few years.

Either way‚ the opinion will be muted. Those who feel that he isn’t doing enough won’t call him a lame duck but they will certainly suggest that he is a swan with a serious limp. Those who are cautiously optimistic will hedge more than a senior executive at Steinhoff.

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