Which way Mzansi
By Herman Moyo
It appears like Mzanzi has its own Bojo, and like with the former British premier, hard decisions have to be taken: should he stay or should he go?
And just as the original Bojo, Ramaphosa is proving difficult to pin down in the manner of the proverbial greased piglet.
He’s a survivor. He’s survived Marikana, the ‘nine wasted years’ as 2IC of Zuma. The question on everyone’s mind is: is he going to survive Phalaphala?
When he accepted the presidency he also accepted the poisoned chalice that goes with the designation in that country. Only Mandela finished his term uninterrupted
Ramaphosa has always fancied himself as being both book & street smart. After leading the ANC delegation in independence talks, he would have thought himself as qualified to lead the country in the dispensation that he’d help bring about.
Unfortunately this was not the view shared by his contemporaries within the ANC, so when Mbeki was chosen to succeed Mandela over him he threw all his toys out of the crib & checked out of parliament & politics.
Fast forward a couple of years, the schisms in his party & sponsorship by white monopoly capital in his campaign catapulted him onto the hot seat.
He’d ruffled a few feathers on his way up, He’d portrayed himself as Mr Squeaky clean the hero that would sweep out corruption & its practitioners including former presidents.
Then Phalaphala happened. Apparently el presidente had sequestered hard currency, lots of it, under sofa cushions and allied furnishings only for it to be pilfered & carried across state lines.
Allegations of furtive cross border kidnappings, torture & blackmail were bandied about leading to a judiciary inquiry into possible primafacie evidence of the head honcho’s culpability in the whole sordid affair.
The panel did its job despite the narrow scope of the terms of reference, time duration & denial of access to information held by the reserve bank, revenue services and central intelligence int.al
What’s clear is that the judiciary panel was not going to be a willing participant in the whitewashing of Phalaphala.
There’s something unsavory that went down and instead of all the protestations & fulminations for & against the findings the next tier should be allowed to kick in.
