On December 16 1961, Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s military wing, declared that it was taking up arms against the apartheid government. Freedom-loving South Africans had for decades petitioned and pleaded for democracy. They were rebuffed.
“The people’s patience is not endless,” the manifesto declared.
It is time someone reminded President Cyril Ramaphosa of this line. Patience is a commodity that Ramaphosa has asked for repeatedly from the South African public. He has asked for patience as he has tried to reverse the deep rot of the nine wasted years. He has asked for patience as he revives the economy. He has asked for patience across the board: fixing the institutions, fixing the values and culture of the ANC, fixing the backward policies of the party. He has asked the public for patience for the mess that his party, the ANC, has landed us in.
The people’s patience, however, is not endless. Ramaphosa cannot get a free pass forever. He has to give something, and right now that something is truth, transparency and a bit of reassurance.
It is now more than 20 days since former spy boss Arthur Fraser announced that he had laid criminal charges against Ramaphosa. The charges are serious: holding millions of allegedly undeclared foreign currency hidden in the furniture at his farm; defeating the ends of justice; kidnapping those who stole from him; cruel interrogation of the suspects on his property; and bribery.
Let us for the moment put aside the accuser’s past shenanigans and his demented social media orchestra. Let us put aside their motives. Let us put aside the fact that the story raises many questions.
Ramaphosa owes the country an explanation. He needs to explain because his integrity – and that of the administration he leads – is now on the line. He looks shady. He looks like a man who is hiding something. He looks guilty as hell.
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Ramaphosa should surely know that, no matter what the circumstances, the people expect him to address these serious allegations against him. They have given him their patience ... They deserve some respect from him.
He cannot claim to lead a government that is premised on transparency and yet continue to not display the transparency he speaks about. He cannot claim to be rejuvenating the values of his once-great party when, accused of such serious crimes, he fails to display and uphold those values.
When journalists grilled him about this two weeks ago, Ramaphosa refused to comment, insisting that he had received advice that he should not respond to speculation, conjecture, allegations or so-called revelations.
That is not a good look. Surely Ramaphosa knows that there is the truth, that it is objective – and there are lies. He has not told the whole truth. He has accepted that there was a robbery at his farm. He has confirmed that he told the head of his protection unit to look into it. Beyond that it is murky. Was the money from sales of animals, as he says? Well, when I read my TimesLive on Saturday, organisers of the auction sales at his farm on that day said only electronic funds transfers would be allowed. So where did his cash come from? Why carry so much foreign currency?
The poet and writer Charles Bukowski once said that “the masses are always wrong”, but clearly he had never met Oliver Tambo, the ANC’s president during its 29 years of exile. Tambo apparently once said the masses are never wrong – leaders who ignore the people meet an ignominious end. Ramaphosa should surely know that, no matter what the circumstances, the people expect him to address these serious allegations against him. They have given him their patience. They have supported his reform agenda. They deserve some respect from him.
Ramaphosa has pointed to his marathon participation in the Zondo commission and his answering of questions in parliament as clear signs of his commitment to transparency. That, unfortunately, is no excuse for him to get a free pass on the serious allegations against him now. Indeed, because he has been so open in the past, the country is now discombobulated by his silence. What, we ask ourselves, is going on?
The enemies that Ramaphosa faces are formidable, desperate, malevolent and resourceful. He is correct to proceed cautiously, given that they continue to blackmail him with threats of further revelations.
That, again, is no excuse for the gaping, damaging silence that has poured forth from him. The truth is the truth, no matter the circumstances. Ramaphosa’s silence paints him as someone who is withholding the truth, waiting to see how best to navigate the traps that Fraser and others have set for him.
His silence, for 21 days, illustrates clearly that he does not have the truth on his side. He is obfuscating. He is defending. If he wants the people to remain supportive of him he will have to fully come clean. Their patience is not endless.
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