According to a recent survey by Afrobarometer, the level of trust in the president has sunk to levels lower than during former president Jacob Zuma’s era, says the writer.
Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
Cape Town - In the spring of 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa was the political darling of South Africa.
A Pulse of the People survey conducted by Ipsos towards the end of 2019 found that a majority of six in every 10 (62%) South Africans thought Ramaphosa was doing his job well.
This was despite almost four in 10 (39%) saying no political party in the country represented their views.
Most people saw him as a leader capable of getting things done in line with the Batho Pele principles.
He was one of the first national politicians they could relate to who seemed to care about bringing development to the long-ignored place where they lived.
Now Ramaphosa sits near the bottom of the country’s leader rankings.
According to a recent survey by Afrobarometer, the level of trust in the president has sunk to levels lower than during former president Jacob Zuma’s era. The explanation lies in the disappointment and mistrust of voters in the president.
Yes, I can relate, too. “Weak”, “confused”, and “out of his depth” are the words that come out of opinion polls today.
Though most people tend to think he is trying his best to unite the ANC, steer economic growth programmes, and fight corruption, they question his competence and reluctance to implement tough decisions.
He does not attract the same hate that we usually see on Twitter. Still, we see him as a figure we pity as he drags himself to the podium to address yet another inquisitive audience to explain incoherent policies and the lack of progress in implementing tactfully negotiated agreements with social partners.
Getting a social compact deal on socio-economic development priorities and social partnerships on implementing the state capture commission recommendations may have given him a Christmas boost to secure his second term in the ANC and government.
But – given the low salience of the issue to many voters disappointed by his indecision on co-ordinating the splintered government departments and lack of transparency on the Phala Phala farm saga – it is unlikely to sustain the public’s favourable view of him. He is no longer South Africa’s political darling – the people see him as a lost man.
What caused this transformation? As Ramaphosa was locked in the anti-corruption campaign and as he was urging the public to wait for the release of all the state capture commission recommendations before calling for heads to roll, the general mood became apolitical.
The country was held in a kind of sickly trance.
People were ready to put their faith in him to lead us through and out of the coronavirus pandemic, on the economic recovery path, and the crusade against corruption.
Instead, the reward for that faith has been the apparent failure to deliver on a string of buzzwords and empty promises such as “smart cities” and “bullet trains”.
Here are some examples. During the 2019 State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa said he dreamt of South Africa having an entirely new city with skyscrapers, schools, universities, hospitals, and factories.
He also said South Africans should imagine bullet trains passing through Johannesburg as they travelled from Cape Town to Musina, stopping in East London on their way back from Durban.
In his 2020 address, Ramaphosa announced the first stage of the Greater Lanseria Master Plan – a modern urban development around the Lanseria airport using various smart technologies.
Plans for the “Lanseria Smart City”, initially known as “Cradle City”, had been under consideration since 2007.
Next came a series of unforced errors that unravelled public trust almost as quickly as it was built and negatively transformed how we now see Ramaphosa.
One notable error came on August 30, when he again failed to answer questions on the Phala Phala farm saga in the National Assembly, saying that the law enforcement authorities asked him only to disclose the details of the “farmgate” scandal after the completion of the investigations.
This was never a straightforward approach and will remain the sore spot in today’s unprecedented parliamentary debate.
The debate will serve as a dress rehearsal discussion for the Phala Phala and Digital Vibes integrity commission reports at the ANC’s 55th national conference, which will immediately pitch the supporters of Ramaphosa and his challenger in the huge presidential battle, Zweli Mkhize, against each other.
As reflected in the latest surveys, strikingly few people can describe the progress and impact of these anti-corruption and socio-economic initiatives in their areas. Indeed, asking the question even after the November 2021 local government elections led to derisive laughter.
Every time ordinary people have been ahead of the curve in combating corruption and stimulating economic growth in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, Ramaphosa and the ANC government have been behind it.
As yet, each time the government has made another inevitable decision, ordinary people have come to think more and more that the “Thuma Mina” man we elected to lead us is following us instead.
But no moment has been as significant as last week’s response by the president to the Section 89 panel report and the calls for his resignation.
His explanation has prompted ridicule, derision, and collective scorn.
Far from the “Luthuli House bubble” story that the Ramaphosa camp wants to convince us this is, it is a saga that has gripped the country.
Public surveys are right to say that voters excited by the Ramaphoria buzzwords and empty promises may not put Phala Phala high on their list by the time of the next election. But the negative impact it is having on the ANC brand may well outlast the memory of the event.
The question voters are asking as they follow this impeachment process is no longer whether politicians will deliver a better life for us all, but once again, whether they care about ordinary people or just about holding on to power.
None of this is complicated; in some communities, it has sparked political party disaffiliation in favour of independent candidates.
Some might say this ANC’s handling of the impeachment inquiry is a minor potential loss, a moment that only comes up once in a while, a blip that the nation will not mourn much.
But the rarity of such an opportunity makes its potential loss so acute.
Sacrificed on the altar of cadre deployment, as well as the other unforced errors littering this first term of Ramaphosa’s presidency, is not only the ANC’s political future that is under scrutiny.
It is also about faith in our political party-dominated proportional representation electoral system.
The wasting of the opportunity to nurture and foster that fragile faith in our elected public representatives is the real legacy of the torrid five years of Ramaphosa’s presidency.
Nyembezi is a policy analyst and human rights activist
Cape Times
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL.
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