Op-Ed: For South Africa to succeed, we need to support Cyril Ramaphosa By Saul Musker
Of course, as Johnny Steinberg hasrecently, “the idea that Armageddon is behind the next corner and that we must do all we can to dodge it is as old as SA itself.”
One day later, on 18 December , Cyril Ramaphosa triumphed at Nasrec. Barely two months after that, he was president. It was not always going to turn out this way. There is an alternate universe in which Jacob Zuma remains in power, his allies ready to succeed him. In which the country is bankrupt, its institutions weakened to breaking point, its people demoralised and suppressed.
The mistake that many of us are now making is to behave as though the future is preordained in a way that it has never been. But this scenario will only occur if we make it so. There is an equally possible future in which Ramaphosa wins a resounding victory, receives the recommendations of the Zondo Commission, establishes a special investigative unit in the NPA, and proceeds to prosecute his enemies within and without the party. In which he implements important structural reforms to revive the economy and returns a sense of stability and progress to the country..
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