President Cyril Ramaphosa would do well to cut to the chase and set the tone for his Government of National Unity while he still can. It has lacked coherence and a proper communication strategy, with ministers too often contradicting one another in public.
There’s an unhinged man in the White House who, like an angry toddler in a sandpit, is threatening everyone. But really, Donald Trump poses a threat to the planet as he seeks to upend the global world order.
In this, he is egged on by a powerful segment of journalists, commentators, tech billionaires and the millions of Americans who voted him into office.
He has opportunistically turned the world into “them and us”. Perfectly nice Canada and Denmark are in the firing line, so no surprise that South Africa has come into Trump’s sights.
Along with his sidekick Elon Musk, Trump this week ranted ignorantly on Truth Social about South Africa’s Expropriation Act. It is no coincidence that Musk has also taken to X to comment on the legislation.
Following this, President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a statement which said: ‘The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the Constitution. South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.”
But, of course, we are dealing with a US president who has a casual relationship with the truth and who governs by fealty and fiat. Once his cabinet of many misfits is fully installed, the cheerleading will only become worse.
Scaremongering
There are no guardrails for Trump’s actions. He is dismantling those each day. So, it is irksome when South Africans like Kallie Kriel support Trump’s fact-free assertions and take to social media to urge the US to “punish” the South African government, or some politicians.
They spread inaccuracies about the Expropriation Act, giving voice to their own scaremongering. And because our government has largely failed us and the majority of the poor especially, their words find fertile ground. So, we must take care in this volatile environment. Words matter and facts still matter.
The Expropriation Act will be implemented in the context of a constitutional democracy. Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa Chief Economist Wandile Sihlobo says rather more soberly:
“The first thing to highlight is that the Expropriation Act’s provisions are subject to the provisions of section 25 of the Constitution of [the] Republic of South Africa, which has not been amended, which requires that compensation must be just and equitable, striking an equitable balance between the public interest and the rights of those affected, having regard to all relevant circumstances.
“Although the new Expropriation Act now explicitly makes reference to the possibility of (Rands/R) Nil compensation to be awarded, the result must be just and equitable. The Act guarantees that expropriation can only be used as a last resort after all other attempts to buy the property have failed. With that said, I must agree that the definition of expropriation remains a concern, and we will need to watch closely how it is applied and interpreted by the courts.”
Vigilance is the price we pay to continue securing our democracy and freedom. We understand that well in these parts.
The fight for democracy
It is easy to forget that at every turn, young as we are, South Africans have fought tooth and nail for this democracy; at the height of State Capture, then public protector Thuli Madonsela showed her mettle, a president was eventually charged, and when that same president sent his rogues to attempt a takeover of National Treasury, decent men and women within thwarted those attempts. They paid a price personally and politically for that.
Civil society pushed back, the media pushed back and our Constitutional Court even under the unimpressive leadership of Moegeng Moegeng held firm. In July 2021, the political forces in our country who would consign us to the scrapheap, attempted an insurrection.
It was brutal and frightening, but equally showed that the majority of South Africans do not want this country to burn – for anyone, least of all a flawed and corrupt former president.
Last year when the ANC lost an election, it did not attempt to cling to power. Instead, it formed a Government of National Unity. Of course each day brings with it different challenges, but 30 years on, with 10 years of State Capture in between and a deeply flawed and corrupt ANC, this is to be expected.
We have much work to do in our country, but we should always remain clear-eyed about how we articulate our challenges while not falling prey to careless assertions and scare tactics.
Ramaphosa’s Sona, and lessons from the US
And so, as we contemplate President Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) this week, it’s worth reflecting on a democracy which has often stayed afloat in spite of the faltering and venal ANC.
We should heed the lessons the US is offering right now – that democracy is made and remade every day and that we leave that work to those in power at our peril. Never before has truth mattered more and never before has the staunch defence of our young institutions mattered more.
So, if the President struck the right tone with Trump in his media release, he remains beleaguered at home and frankly, insipid. He seems far more comfortable pondering the G20 Presidency than dealing with issues at home, often quite typical of presidents in their last term.
When the President addressed the nation last year this time, the ANC was solely in charge of the country. The crown lies uneasily on Ramaphosa’s head as he seeks to balance the interests of his party with those of the country, with these being often entirely incompatible.
We also fool ourselves if we believe that things are settled, leaving aside the threat of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party, its noise and dangerous rhetoric. It has now taken over the mantle of the EFF as disruptors and anti-constitutionalists.
The GCIS website is awash with entreaties to us all to tune in to Sona 2025 at 7pm on Thursday, 6 February. The straplines are variously, “working together to accelerate our development” or “a new era for South Africa”. With load shedding back at the weekend and unemployment at a stubborn 32.1% in the last quarter, most South Africans would be forgiven for not feeling the joy of this “new era”.
The GCIS continues: ‘The State of the Nation follows the Opening of Parliament in July last year where the President detailed the key priorities of the 7th Administration. The 2025 Sona will advance our national priorities by expanding on key programmes such as the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the Energy Action Plan and Infrastructure Investment Plan. The President will detail how we will ensure lasting and sustainable energy security through the implementation of the Energy Action Plan and the Electricity Regulation Amendment Act. Importantly, he will also outline the work of government to address the looming crisis of water security that poses a threat to the quality of life and economic prospects of all South Africans.”
These are all crucial, and the President will, we are told, spend time on the question of a National Dialogue.
The GNU
All laudable, but the President would do well to cut to the chase and set the tone for his GNU while he still can. It has lacked coherence and a proper communication strategy with ministers too often contradicting one another in public.
The road ahead for the GNU is anything but smooth. The recent controversies over the Bela Act and Expropriation Act have shown this starkly, and there will be many other examples that will play out behind the scenes and in sensationalist media coverage. However, news of its demise may be greatly exaggerated.
Also, Ramaphosa’s Cabinet should surely be reshuffled, with some like Thembi Simelane and Khumbudzo Ntshavheni having a cloud of corruption and fraud hanging over their heads? The most recent Cabinet reshuffle saw Simelane moved from Justice to Human Settlements – cold comfort to the citizenry and an act of cowardice by Ramaphosa.
So while the GCIS speaks of “joy”, ordinary South Africans will be hard-pressed to find any amid the crises of unemployment, poverty and inequality, and further crises which have unfolded in the DRC and the Stilfontein mining disasters, both of which have shown a government lacking in compassion and unprepared for disaster.
Add to this the daily dose of indignities suffered by the poor, and it makes a farce of attempts like the Bela and also the proposal of the NHI. There is very little money to implement either, and in the case of the NHI, the healthcare system is so broken it is a fool’s errand.
But we can expect the President to trumpet both pieces of legislation to pander to the populists in his party. He has spent a lot of time as president pandering to the party, with little effect. He should stop doing so, but it’s probably too late to ask him to be his own man.
Plain language
In November 2019, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was challenged by her staff to record a clip of what her government had achieved in its first two years. She was challenged to do so in less than two minutes. Eventually, Ardern finished in two minutes and 56 seconds. She rattled off what had been done in simple language and with facts and figures, for instance, “creating 92,000 jobs”.
South Africa is not New Zealand, obviously, and our challenges are structural, historic and complex, yet this video provides a lesson in simplicity and accountability. In the South African government, both are in short supply.
Instead of yet another yawn-inducing and lengthy Sona, perhaps Ramaphosa can follow Ardern’s plain language report-back? It would serve to focus all our minds and also allow the President to finally dispense with the clunky, uninspiring rhetoric of previous years.
Ramaphosa, with the power of the presidency (still), could try to set the tone in a short, sharp speech dealing with electricity generation and the economy (jobs), infrastructure and education. Ramaphosa should also not shy away from setting the tone for democratic engagement and discourse which is civil, fact-based and which draws on our constitutional framework.
The rest of the death by detail can be left to ministerial briefings which will follow next week.
We still do long to be led with conviction, after all. DM