Ramaphosa the peacemaker soothes fiery Parliament in Sona response

The post-Sona debates are traditionally an occasion at which fiery rhetoric and brutal put-downs fly between the nation’s politicians. This year, despite a broad consensus that President Cyril Ramaphosa was correct to stand up to US intimidation, was no exception.

There was EFF MP Omphile Maotwe suggesting to the President: “Mr Ramaphosa, why don’t you rather keep quiet and go look after your Ankole [cattle] in Phala Phala.”

There was National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams claiming of the minister of agriculture: “A white man’s sheep is more important than coloured lives to John Steenhuisen.”

And there was DA chief whip George Michalakis, responding to the speech of famously diminutive Deputy Public Works Minister Sihle Zikalala with the words: “You tried hard, but you came up short.”

The bickering seemed to extend to internal party dynamics too, with SABC reporting that MK deputy leader John Hlophe was aggrieved at having his long-prepared speech replaced at the last minute with one allegedly written by national organiser Floyd Shivambu. The speech, as previously reported, was devoted almost entirely to singing the praises of former president Jacob Zuma.

In his responses to the speeches on Thursday, Ramaphosa sought to paste over the divisions.

National Dialogue incoming

“This debate illustrated the dangers of retreating to corners, isolating ourselves in ideological, cultural, racial and linguistic enclaves, and hardly ever engaging beyond our immediate circles,” said Ramaphosa.

It was a moment, he suggested, at which the forthcoming National Dialogue took on a new importance.

Ramaphosa first mentioned the plan at his inauguration in June 2024 and affirmed his commitment to it in December.

As yet, there have been few details forthcoming as to what exactly the National Dialogue will entail. In Ramaphosa’s last statement on the subject, he said it would “enable a conversation among citizens on shaping our country’s future developmental path”, and “address pressing challenges such as gender-based violence and femicide, social fragmentation, racism, homophobia and sexism, violence and instability”.

That sounds like yet another talk-shop — but on Thursday Ramaphosa told Parliament that the National Dialogue was intended to “result in concrete processes to become a more united and stronger South Africa in the face of many political, social and economic challenges, both globally and locally”.

GNU will not always agree

There were moments in the two days of Sona debates this week where tensions within the Government of National Unity (GNU) seemed to be on full display — both interpersonally, as with the conflict between Zikalala and his boss, Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson, and in terms of the signing off on recent pieces of contentious legislation: NHI, Bela and the Expropriation Act.

Ramaphosa told Parliament that this was not a cause for concern.

“It is expected that the 10 parties who make up the GNU, with their very different perspectives and ideological views, will not always agree and will sometimes feel the need, on platforms such as this, to talk to their different constituencies. Now despite these differences, these political parties are working well together in the GNU, whether people like it or not. We are finding ways of mediating our differences,” said the President.

Turning to the land expropriation issue, Ramaphosa sketched the history of forced removals in South Africa and the accompanying trauma to make the point that this could never be allowed to happen again — including through the Expropriation Act.

“That is why we have a Constitution that prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of property,” said Ramaphosa.

“That is why we have a Constitution that requires just and equitable compensation be paid in the event of expropriation for a public purpose or in the public interest.”

Later, he emphasised the fact that all the controversial recent pieces of legislation had passed through Parliament — although the DA is set to argue in court that when it comes to the Expropriation Act, the legal process was not followed properly in the National Council of Provinces.

Ramaphosa said the Constitution was clear that the President has to sign off on Bills passed by Parliament unless he is advised that they won’t pass Constitutional muster, regardless of disagreement from other parties.

“We should be proud of our legislative architecture and process, which subjects every draft Bill to several layers of debate, consideration, scrutiny, as well as public consultation,” said the President.

In a possible dig at the recent flurry of executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump, Ramaphosa added: “We should be proud that we are a democracy that is governed by a thorough process of approving our laws and not the arbitrary whims of a ruler.”

Transformation will happen, so suck it up

Ramaphosa expressed what seemed to be genuine frustration just once, causing him to deviate from his prepared speech, on the topic of critics of the government’s racial transformation policies.

There has been a particular hubbub around the proposed R20-billion annual Transformation Fund.

The government remained committed to transformation “whether people like it or not”, said Ramaphosa.

“Sometimes people say, ‘You have restituted land to people but the land that you have restituted has gone fallow, it’s not being utilised’. And then they say, ‘That is so because you never gave assistance, financial support or otherwise’. And when we want to set up a transformation fund, the very same people are against it. How is that possible?”

South Africa against the world

Ramaphosa also used his response to double down on the sentiment he delivered in last week’s Sona in the face of threatened sanctions from the US: South Africa will not be bullied.

“I would also like to repeat: we will not be bullied, by anyone within the country or outside, from our intent to work together,” he said.

“At a time like this we need to stand united as a nation, particularly now when we are facing a harsh global wind.”

In a rebuke to AfriForum and Solidarity, the President said: “This is not the time for any of us to rush off to foreign lands to lay complaints about issues that we ourselves can solve here in this country. We need South African solutions to South African problems.” DM