By: Clyde N.S. Ramalaine
In late February 2018, when Zuma was removed, his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa came to represent the Executive. To appreciate the case for his captured status, we must understand how he came to ANC high office. It is important to make since few realize that we are in the 5th year of Ramaphosa’s leadership.
Ramaphosa became the first ANC president that needed more than R1bn to literally ‘steal’ an election with a narrow 179 votes from NDZ, whom most are today willing to agree won at NASREC back in December 2017. It is right here that the case is made that the Ramaphosa presidency is the first that is wholly captured by white monopoly capital and its manifold tentacles that extend beyond the borders of SA into old-West interests.
That aside, Ramaphosa, until now, has the names and details of those who donated to his CR17 campaign sealed. Dare we forget that former Chief Justice Mogoeng cautioned South Africa that no one gives millions into any individual’s campaign without expecting a return on investment. Many of those invested in the CR17 campaign has received significant contracts in, among others, the COVID economy. What has come of the multi-layered investigations on the COVID stolen billions? Back then, I said Ramaphosa is the master of obfuscation, and today two years I know it more. This right here suggests capture. Ramaphosa as representing the Executive is thus captured because the real economic power behind his presidency is protected as aided by the Judiciary, who cannot see the need for transparency in a democratic South Africa.
Fast-forward to his first cabinet appointment. Who can forget that night when he appeared gaunt and battered. The detail suggests he earlier met with National Office Bearers, and the names for his first cabinet were finalised. He then left for Mahlamba-Ndlopfu, from where at 6 pm, he was going to apprise South Africa as to who makes up his cabinet. Few know that since leaving Luthuli House and traveling to Mahlamba–Ndlopfu, Matamela was in consultation with the ones who have his ears or from whom he takes instructions. He was now consulting his real bosses, who told him that they were not happy with some of the names. Pressed by the ones who direct him, he tried his best to augment the list, following this prior. At the insistence of Secretary-General Ace Magashule to be present as he was about to announce the names, that left him no choice but to finalize the presented names in line with what was tabled to the National Office Bearers. Everyone who knows Ramaphosa knows he seldom makes his own decisions regardless of popular or unpopular he usually consults and is led from outside the ANC, even on ANC matters.
Strong claims exist that a significant part of the SONA was wholly outsourced to the DA to write. A recent example of this was the SONA 2022 that he delivered. Is it any wonder that DA Leader Steenhuizen and Member of Parliament Mazzone were at pains to tell us how the president considered and incorporated the DA views. What does it say about the ANC in office?
To appreciate how captured Ramaphosa’s Executive is, you only have to look at the new World Bank and IMF debt South Africa is tied to. Ramaphosa and the ‘pilchards- meal chef, former Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni, are wholly beholden to global financial groups and interests.
His captured status is further underscored by his choice to comply with the USA Joe Biden-led package that apparently defines a green energy economy deal. Biden insisted that South Africa was Africa’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, and this needed to change. “By closing South African coal plants ahead of schedule and investing in clean power alternatives for the people of South Africa in supporting an equitable and inclusive transition in South Africa’s coal sector, we’re following through on the pledge the G7 partners made in Cornwall to accelerate the transition away from coal in developing countries.” Ramaphosa would tweet, I’m pleased to join US President @Joe Biden and other leaders at #COP26 in announcing a historic partnership to support a just transition to a low carbon economy and climate-resilient society in South Africa.
This non-consulted deal in which his Minister of Minerals was not known spits at SA’s coal industry and its thousands of employees. It is a known fact that South Africa has coal reserves in excess of a 40-year lifespan.
Ramaphosa, as an obedient subordinate, bowed to Biden’s rhetoric of a green energy economy when all over Europe, with the UK leading the reopening of their coal mines. Yes, you guessed right, he is captured and subservient to the interest of the West. If you still don’t believe how captured Ramaphosa is, consider his ignoring and utter rejection of BRICS partners such as China and Russia. They volunteered to come to the aid of South Africa with their vaccines and assistance during the heat of the COVID-19. It is claimed that some of these goods, until this day, are still at the OR Tambo International airport while he went to post with expired drugs. He was instructed not to buy or promote BRICS partner support or products. This renders Ramaphosa a servant to the USA and European interests. The proverbial ‘Uncle Tom’, as the Americans would describe a black who is a servant of the appeal of whites against his own people.
It is claimed that when the controversial Dr. Makhosi Khosa, in another season, was looking for funding to start her party, she knocked on the door of George Soros. Apparently, Soros bluntly asked Khosa why he should invest in her political campaign and party when his guy ran the country. Ramaphosa’s captured status is an entangled web of Old West international and local white capitalist interests. From this bedrock, he is directed less by ANC branches or members.
It is a given that South Africa has since 2018 many more CIA operatives active in SA. One understands Ramaphosa as subservient to the West when you see how hot and cold he blows on Ukraine. Two of his ministers, Naledi Pandor and Lindiwe Zulu, are on record to have called Russia out as the aggressor. Recently Ramaphosa entertained a phone call from Joe Biden, who insisted that Ramaphosa comes out stronger against Putin’s Russia. We subsequently heard of the length of call Ramaphosa had with Ukraine leader Zelenskyy and an imminent visit to be undertaken by Ramaphosa. We saw Ramaphosa’s security advisor Sidney Mufamadi fending off claims that the White House attributed to Ramaphosa in support of Ukraine. What does this mean for South Africa’s BRICS membership?
While Ramaphosa is a gross failure for the cause of blacks, he is an absolute success for his handlers, who have always wanted the ANC in disarray, malleable and insignificant.
How this guy cannot read the signs of the times is baffling. When COSATU curses at him on May Day 2022 and denies Ramaphosa to speak, it is, as the adage goes, chickens coming home to roost. COSATU has realized how beholden Ramaphosa is to white and capital interest. They will not allow him to continue dividing and ruling for his CR22 political agenda anymore.
Lest we forget how COSATU and SACP stage camouflage marches in 2017 against graft when we all knew they were campaigning for Ramaphosa. They did this in the name of Red-October to Campaign for Ramaphosa. Today his former stomping grounds and biggest claim of significance in a past constituency has embarrassed and rejected him until he had to jump into a police Nyala for safety. The pre-paid president, who is beholden to his handlers, is seen as a pathological liar in many black constituencies because he stands indifferent to their plight.
READ ALSO: PART 004: Is the Legislature under Ramaphosa captured?
How anyone can insist Ramaphosa, who uniquely presided over the destruction of the ANC, the blatant ignoring of its resolutions on economic transformation and land is the answer to ANC renewal and unity is beyond me. How those who advocate him deserve a second term when he dismally failed to deal with the economic woes of the black masses is beyond me. Some sing for their lunch to have him go to the 55th Conference uncontested. Under his leadership, the ANC dropped significantly both in national and municipal ballot support, and having no metro under its precise control defies logic. His legacy is a dysfunctional ANC, in which his lust for a second term dictates everything because his handlers insist he stay in power that they may benefit more. Ramaphosa is the antithesis of any ANC renewal or unity.
He is the signpost of a captured president who, long ago, sold his soul to white interest. Ramaphosa, as far back as 1978, was bought with favours by the Urban Foundation and Harry Oppenheimer, the financial backbone of the National Union of Mineworkers that produced him the ‘biggest strike’ claim back in 1986. The ANC never had such a captured president, and it gave SA a captured president, which it must get rid of because he does not work for the agenda of the black masses. Ramaphosa’s connectedness to capital renders him indolent to the challenges that the masses face.
Hitherto Ramaphosa presides over five wasted years. The poor are poorer, colonial and apartheid whites wealthier, and the attempts of economic transformation remain frustrated by his handlers’ ambitions and deals. I am afraid the guy in Mahlamba-Ndlopfu does not remotely represent the interest of the workers. He is wholly captured by the agenda and interests of those who continue oppressing blacks. Is it any surprise that he is called the prepaid president?
*Clyde N.S. Ramalaine
Political Analyst & Freelance Writer
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