The fateful day Ramphele kissed politics goodbye

Just two months after the general elections and a year after her political party, Agang SA, was launched, Mamphela Ramphele has quit politics.

It was only a matter of time, especially after members of her party revolted against her. She was a sitting duck being circled by vultures.

Yesterday Ramphele said she was calling it quits on politics to free her to "pursue my dream" of transforming society.

She said the outcome of the May 7 national and provincial elections, in which Agang SA won two parliamentary seats, and the subsequent turbulence within her party, convinced her that much more needed to be done to create an environment that would promote the empowerment of citizens through free high-quality education and training.

It has not been easy for her, especially after that infamous kiss with opposition leader Helen Zille in the run-up to the elections, when she agreed to be the DA's presidential candidate. It was a kiss that sealed her fate as the liaison unravelled in dramatic fashion a few days later. Her party's wheels came off and it was downhill all the way from there.

Now that she has jumped ship, what are those who remain behind going to do about it? Will they take her political dreams forward or should we brace ourselves for a series of legal squabbles among the competing factions, as we saw with COPE?

Ramphele and her comrades failed Politics 101 and they never read the script on how to survive South African politics.

Though her intentions and those of her party appeared genuine, we must now question their motives. Did they pursue their political dreams on behalf of business, or on behalf of those who had lost hope with COPE?

The problem we face as a country is not the dearth of talented leaders or individuals but a surfeit of powermongers. COPE was weakened by leadership squabbles because everyone wanted to be leader and no one wanted to be led. The lesson is that the enemy is always within.

Ramphele says she will pursue her dreams outside politics. It remains to be seen whether those who are left behind will still be around for the 2016 municipal polls.