<p><em>James Hamill | University of Leicester</em></p>
<p>The latest instalment in South Africa’s longest running political soap opera played out dramatically on 16 March when Shaun Abrahams, the head of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), announced that 16 criminal charges against former president Jacob Zuma must stand and be tested in court.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-43011 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/zuma_youtube.jpg" alt="S.Africa's Zuma says avoiding downgrade a priority" width="604" height="340" /></p>
<p>The charges relate to 783 counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering. The charges were controversially dropped in 2009 but reinstated by the country’s High Court in 2016. The Supreme Court of Appeal went on to uphold this judgment in 2017.</p>
<p>This is merely one instalment in a drama that may still have some years to run. It can be traced back to the sleaze and kickbacks surrounding the arms procurement package of the late 1990s. The allegations were that Zuma was a beneficiary of largesse from certain arms companies in exchange for exerting his influence on their behalf.</p>
<p>The Abrahams decision – made despite opposition fears that, as a Zuma appointee, he might flinch from the challenge &#8211; is of enormous significance. A former president is now likely to find himself in the dock at a criminal trial, an unprecedented event in South African history.</p>
<h2>A different political atmosphere</h2>
<p>Looking beyond the groundbreaking historical nature of the decision and its implications for Zuma personally, it seems unlikely that Abrahams’ decision will generate the same passions as the issue did in the 2007-2009 period. At that point Zuma’s standing in the ANC alliance was at an all time high and attempts to prosecute him for corruption were viewed as part of a wider ‘dirty tricks’ campaign to sabotage his rise to the presidencies of both party and state. This included the Thabo Mbeki camp inside the ANC and others outside the party.</p>
<p>His 2006 rape trial had been viewed in similar terms by his staunchest backers such as then ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who subsequently, and rather shamelessly, would reinvent himself as Zuma’s chief critic.</p>
<p>Pro-Zuma sentiment was particularly strong on the left of the ANC-led alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party uncritically and unconditionally buying into the mythology around Zuma . They viewed his presidency as an opportunity to engineer a leftwards shift in South Africa’s general political direction after the supposed ‘neo-liberalism’ of the Mbeki years.</p>
<p>Now, in 2018, the left is older and wiser. In the aftermath of a scandal ridden presidency disfigured by endemic corruption and allegations of state capture by private interests close to Zuma, the trade union federation and the Communist Party are more likely to support his prosecution than contest it.</p>
<p>Equally, the broader politics of the issue are now less highly charged. In 2009, Zuma was the president-in-waiting. There was limited enthusiasm, even among his many critics in the movement, to see a South African president inaugurated who faced the realistic prospect of a criminal trial in the foreseeable future. It was felt this would provide a fatal distraction from the responsibilities of government.</p>
<p>As it turned out, he was fatally distracted from those responsibilities anyway by a succession of new scandals which arrived with alarming frequency to paralyse his presidency. These included Nkandla (2013/2014), Nenegate (December 2015), the sacking of Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan (March 2017), and the various state capture reports of 2016/17.</p>
<p>While prosecutors technically make their decisions on narrow legal grounds, one should not assume they are entirely insulated from broader political and societal pressures in their decision making. Now, however, Zuma is merely a former president and an ANC member. Consequently, the protective shield previously extended by the governing party will not be there. And, given the other scandals mentioned above and with a new leader in place, he may only be able to draw on very modest support from within the ANC’s ranks.</p>
<h2>The double-edged sword</h2>
<p>Zuma’s proposed prosecution is a welcome reaffirmation of the principle that all are equal before the law. But a trial carries with it very real dangers for the ANC.</p>
<p>First, it will serve to remind a wider South African audience that Zuma did not emerge in a vacuum. He is a product of the ANC. The party elected him twice as its president and, before recalling him in February 2017, rallied round him during the Nkandla saga and in numerous parliamentary votes of no-confidence. Its own National Executive Committee also rejected demands for his recall on several occasions. It will be difficult if not impossible for the ANC to avoid some collateral damage as it was unquestionably the chief facilitator and enabler of that discredited era.</p>
<p>Second, there is always the risk that a trial will see the movement’s dirty laundry being aired in public by Zuma. This will be particularly true if he believes his fate is sealed, taking the opportunity for a wider settling of scores with others in the ANC. The trial could then become an endurance test for the ANC and a propaganda windfall for its opponents reminding South Africans in graphic detail of the looting and embezzlement over which the movement has presided.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa will hope that Zuma’s lawyers revisit their earlier so-called ‘Stalingrad strategy’ of delays and prevarication so that when it finally commences it does so after – and not before – the 2019 election. On past evidence there are likely to be numerous attempts by his lawyers to actually prevent the case from ever coming to court.</p>
<p>For the trial to take place in the run up to, and during that election campaign, would be extremely unwelcome for the new leadership. It will blunt the Ramaphosa message that he is ‘purifying’ the movement, restoring its traditional values, and seeking closure on a discredited era.</p>
<p>Moreover, even in the aftermath of an election, the issue will return to the top of Ramaphosa’s agenda if Zuma is eventually found guilty. The question of granting or not granting him a pardon will then arise. This will test the credentials of a leader supposedly making a definitive break with a sordid past.</p>
<p>It is also possible that further charges could be brought against Zuma once the whole state capture phenomenon is laid bare by an official commission of inquiry headed by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. The state capture saga makes the existing charges against Zuma look insubstantial by comparison.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93795/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />Zuma’s presidency may be over, but his toxic legacy seems likely to haunt the ANC – and through it South Africa &#8211; for some considerable time yet.</p>
<p><em>This article was originally published on The Conversation. </em></p>


Op-Ed: Zuma trial means that his toxic legacy will haunt South Africa for some time

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<p>It&#8217;s a historical day, Former president Jacob Zuma will be prosecuted for 16 chargers including corruption, racketeering and fraud, CNBC Africa reporter Aviwe Mtila was there when the announcement was made and he joins us now for more.</p>


Abrahams says Zuma to face prosecution

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<p>The announcement South Africans have been looking forward to has finally been made; Charges against former president Jacob Zuma related to the arms deal have been reinstated.</p>


DA to fight state footing Zuma’s legal fees

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<p>Former president, Jacob Zuma, will finally have his day in court, this after the National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams decided that Zuma will face 16 charges relating to fraud, corruption and racketeering.</p>


Zuma to have his day in court

<p>Almost four years after <a href="http://cnbc.africa/tag/african-bank/page/2/">African Bank</a> was placed under curatorship, another bank has followed suit.</p>
<p>VBS Mutual Bank established in 1982, was placed under curatorship from 5pm CAT on Sunday.</p>
<p>The bank which is registered with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) as a mutual bank shot to fame after <a href="http://cnbc.africa/videos/2017/02/02/vbs-mutual-bank-chairman-speaks-on-zumas-nkandla-loan/">providing a loan to South Africa&#8217;s former President Jacob Zuma for Nkandla</a>.</p>
<p>SizweNtsalubaGobodo will be the curator of VBS Mutual Bank and will be represented by Anoosh Rooplal.</p>
<p>The Reserve Bank has guaranteed retail deposits amounting to R50 000 per depositor and said VBS remains open for business. According to SARB “the curator will ensure that all loans due are collected as part of the normal collections processes, but also importantly that lending and transactional banking services continue”.</p>
<p>VBS’s main clientele comes from Limpopo. It has 22 051 deposit and 1 105 loan accounts.</p>
<p>The bank has no bondholders. Only instruments qualifying as primary equity.</p>
<p>The decision to place VBS under curatorship was taken due to its increasing liquidity challenges over the last 18 months emanating from a failure of the board of directors and executive management to manage the mutual bank&#8217;s rapid growth and the funding of its liquidity, SARB revealed at a press conference held at its headquarters.</p>
<p>In a statement read to journalists at the conference, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago, dressed casually, said “the liquidity challenges emanated from the concentration of deposits from municipalities and was exacerbated by the termination of other sizeable deposits and the inability to source sufficient funding timeously. It was highly risky for VBS to take sizeable municipal deposits that were short-term and lend them long term.”</p>
<p>It was also in breach of the Banks Act which forbids mutual banks from taking deposits from municipalities, only commercial banks can, revealed Kganyago. The breach was picked up 18 months ago and despite warnings for SARB – VBS continued to take deposits from municipalities. Only on the 26th February did it decide to apply for a commercial bank licence, a process that could take between 12-18 months.</p>
<p>Three years ago, when VBS started accepting deposits from municipalities, it had a balance sheet of about R200 million. This rapidly grew to R2 billion.</p>
<p>The liquidity challenges faced by VBS made it difficult for it to settle obligations in the National Payments System on several occasions. This came to a head on the 16th February when the bank failed to honour its obligation. At this point SARB started engaging with VBS and its two largest two shareholders (the Public Investment Corporation and Vele) on a way forward, after an exhaustive process no solution was found and the decision was taken to place VBS under curatorship, says Kganyago.</p>
<p>Kganyago said banks are placed under curatorship if you believe it might be salvageable and to prevent a run on the bank.</p>
<p>According to National Treasury the aim of curatorship is ultimately to turn the mutual bank around and nurse it back to health. “This is in contrast with liquidation, where the mutual bank is closed down”. Treasury cites African Bank as an example of a bank which emerged stronger after curatorship.</p>


Why black-owned bank VBS was placed under curatorship

<p>By Godfrey Mutizwa</p>
<p>South Africa’s economic growth is likely to remain sub-par until President Cyril Ramaphosa fixes Eskom and other state-owned enterprises which have been haemorrhaging scarce resources, experts say.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unless we fix the state-owned enterprises which are catalysts for growth in most economies we will continue to suffer a leaking bucket,’’ Terence Sibiya, Nedbank Managing Executive: Client Coverage CIB told a post budget panel sponsored by his company and Old Mutual in Cape Town.</p>
<p>Dennis Dykes, Nedbank’s Chief Economist said Eskom had vastly overspent on projects and this was being exacerbated by poor execution resulting in the government having to find money to repay the loans while paying interest on capital being under-utilised.</p>
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<p>While the government had taken some positive steps including appointing new executives and boards at power utility Eskom and South African Airways (SAA), it wasn’t enough, he warned.</p>
<p>&#8220;So far the patient has been wheeled into ICU (intensive care unit) and stabilised,’’ Dykes said. &#8220;But you really want to see the patient running marathons. That’s going to be much more difficult.’’</p>
<p>In his 2018 budget review document, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba noted the overall profitability of state-owned companies deteriorated to 0.3 percent from 0.8 percent on a return on equity basis during the fiscal year largely because of corruption, mismanagement and poor governance. Several firms were in financial distress, he said.</p>
<p>Moreover, government guarantees to these companies remains extremely high at R466 billion compared with R469 billion two years ago, largely on the back of poor performance by Eskom and SAA.</p>
<p>However Owen Willcox, Chief Director, Economic Services, Public Finance Unit at the National Treasury told the debate the government was committed to dealing with the SOEs as reflected in the commitment to find a strategic equity partner for SAA and fund any future requirements for others in a deficit neutral way through the sale of some of the 1,400 state properties.</p>
<p>The budget had also been prepared with an eye on spurring economic growth said, Wilcox, pointing to specific funding for small enterprises, special economic zones and extended public works programmes.</p>
<p>Dykes said a study he had conducted showed the country may have lost as much as R500 billion since 2014 because of what he called the &#8220;toxic political environment’’ in the second term of former President Jacob Zuma’s administration.</p>
<p>“If you take a 30 percent of the half a trillion rand that’s a considerable amount of tax revenue: we could have paid for Medupi (power station) cash,’’ he said. &#8220;It’s enormously important that the economy is growing.  You have to actually make it conducive for growth for the private sector to actually start participating much more aggressively. You have to actually roll out the red carpet rather making things uncertain and beating business on the head.’’</p>
<p>He acknowledged the mood had changed following the election of Ramaphosa as president of the ruling African National Congress party last December. He saw the potential for a quicker upturn in the mining and renewable energy sectors while other industries would take more time.</p>
<p>New Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene recently said it is too early to revise growth estimates and he would only provide his numbers in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in October. Gigaba estimated growth of 1 percent for 2017 which was expected to reach 2.1 percent by 2020.</p>
<p>The one big cloud hanging over higher growth forecasts was the government’s plans to expropriate land without compensation, said Dykes.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s gonna be very tricky because once the constitution is changed, it opens the way for future governments who might not be as investor friendly as the current one,’’ he said. &#8220; I can’t think of anywhere where it has actually worked well.’’</p>


How President Cyril Ramaphosa can fix SA’s growth

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<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa fired 10 ministers last night in the cabinet reshuffle that’s the talk of Africa this morning. It saw a restructured and workmanlike cabinet with a more than a few old faces. CNBC Africa’s head of programming Chris Bishop looks through some of the highlights.</p>


Explainer: What you need to know about SA President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet

<p>Vishwas Satgar | <em>University of the Witwatersrand</em></p>
<p>The African National Congress (ANC) has made a dangerous habit of bringing post-apartheid South Africa to the brink of instability and the common ruin of all. The resignation of former President Jacob Zuma and his replacement by Cyril Ramaphosa was such a moment. It brought home the point that the over-concentration of power in the office of the president has clearly not worked.</p>
<div id="attachment_299285" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-299285" class="wp-image-299285 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Cyril-Ramaphosa_Baleka-Mbete_SONA2018-GettyImages.png" alt="" width="850" height="565" /><p id="caption-attachment-299285" class="wp-caption-text">South Africa&#8217;s newly-minted president Cyril Ramaphosa (C) reviews a guard of honour with National Speaker Baleka Mbete (R) as he arrives to deliver his State of the National address at the Parliament in Cape Town, on February 16, 2018. Image: Getty Images</p></div>
<p>A rethink on president-centred politics and the threats it poses to the democracy are crucial for the post-Zuma period. South Africa needs to re-imagine democratic practice, leadership and how power works.</p>
<p>Some sections of South African society have reduced the Zuma problem to a corruption problem. Dismantle Zuma’s kleptocratic network, the argument goes, and all is solved. Zuma’s demise and a few high profile prosecutions will suffice.</p>
<p>But another view on the Zuma problem – and one with which I concur – suggests it is a problem of contending class projects inside the ANC. The neoliberal class project under Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki saw South Africa integrated into global markets. It maintained stability through modest redistributive reforms. This project laid the basis for a new black middle class to emerge while systematically weakening labour and the left.</p>
<p>But it surrendered the state (including the presidency) to transnational capital and the power of finance.</p>
<p>The Zuma project, on the other hand, advanced looting as the basis of accumulation and class formation. The extra-constitutional state that emerged deepened the macroeconomic, institutional and legitimacy crisis of the ANC-led state. The left and labour, aligned with the ANC in the tripartite alliance, were co-opted and divided. Both these projects are entrenched in the ANC.</p>
<p>Now what? Messiah-centred presidential politics is extremely dangerous. This is particularly true in a country of extreme inequality and with a formal concentration of power in the office of the president. If politics is not represented, thought and acted beyond this, South Africa is going to repeat historical mistakes.</p>
<p>Since the ANC’s December 2017 conference the media, the banks and international institutions have been talking up a narrative of the “Cyril effect”. Zuma’s removal is attributed to this. In fact the Cyril effect is a narrative of capture of South Africa’s new president by transnational and financial capital.</p>
<p>South Africa’s democracy cannot afford another captured president beholden to credit rating agencies, currency fluctuations, investment flows and business perceptions. South Africa’s democracy has to be grounded in the needs of its citizens and the mandates given by its Constitution.</p>
<h2>The ‘Cyril effect’ is hyperbole</h2>
<p>The end of Zuma was in fact not because of the Cyril effect. In the main Zuma was removed by the people’s effect which connected the dots of corruption, a mismanaged state and rapacious capitalism.</p>
<p>This resistance was expressed over 15 years through various institutions and social forces. These included:</p>
<ul>
<li>Battles inside the South African Communist Party (SACP) against Zumafication but which led to expulsions;</li>
<li>By feminists during Zuma’s rape trial and subsequently through #RememberKhwezi;</li>
<li>Artists and cartoonists lampooning Zuma, including with shower heads;</li>
<li>The ongoing struggles in communities against corrupt officials;</li>
<li>The Marikana massacre in 2012. This produced rage among workers and major realignments away from Zuma’s ANC;</li>
<li>The call by trade unions like the metalworkers’ Numsa for Zuma’s removal;</li>
<li>The Vukani-Sidikiwe campaign during the 2014 elections which opened up a national debate on how citizens should vote;</li>
<li>The rise of #ZumaMustGo Campaign. This was in response to the sacking of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister in December 2015. The NUMSA-led United Front played a crucial role in this;</li>
<li>The #FeesMustFall movement. Students’ demands included labour insourcing as well as quality, decommodified and decolonised higher education;</li>
<li>The 2016 local government elections. These were a harbinger of seismic political realignments against the ANC in key cities;</li>
<li>The role of investigative and nonpartisan media in probing corruption scandals. And the publication of the Gupta-leaks as well as “A Simple Man” and “The President’s Keepers”;</li>
<li>The courageous role from 2010 onwards of then public protector Thuli Mandonsela in drawing attention to ethics and legal violations by Zuma;</li>
<li>Court decisions affirming the judiciary’s independence in relation to Zuma;</li>
<li>Zuma’s miscalculation in firing finance minister Pravin Gordhan, the rallying of activists and the rise of #SaveSouthAfrica. What followed were some of the largest post-apartheid protest marches;</li>
<li>The powerful voice of liberation struggle veterans like Ahmed Kathrada and others who called for Zuma to resign.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The ANC’s legitimacy crisis</h2>
<p>As a result of all this activity the crisis of legitimacy in the ANC – and the ANC state – has deepened. This has placed immense pressure on the party to act. In this context, Ramaphosa is playing out his role out of necessity and to secure the ANC’s electoral fortunes.</p>
<p>For middle class and rich South Africans Ramaphosa’s state of the nation speech represented a return to normalcy – a democracy that works for a few. That’s not to say that the new president didn’t make some important announcements in his state of the nation address. This included his comments about state owned enterprises, redistributive state programmes and anti-corruption mechanisms.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the speech struck chords that resonated with the “return to normalcy” narrative.</p>
<p>But South Africans can’t repeat the mistake made in 1994 when progressive civil society demobilised. The people’s effect has to continue to shape a post-Zuma democracy in the interests of all. The ANC has abused majority support and cannot be trusted with the future of South Africa.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92051/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />People’s power has to be strengthened and continuously mobilised around strengthening democratic institutions, ending corruption, fundamental economic transformation and advancing systemic alternatives to the climate crisis.</p>
<p><em>This article was originally published on The Conversation. </em></p>


South Africa must resist another captured president: this time by the markets

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<p>Foluso Phillips, Chairman of the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce joined CNBC Africa for a discussion on the impact the change in leaders in SA could have on the business community.</p>


What SA’s leadership change means for business – Foluso Phillips

<p>JOHANNESBURG/CAPE TOWN, Feb 19 (Reuters) &#8211; Atul Gupta, one of three Gupta brothers being investigated for corrupt links to ousted South African president Jacob Zuma, is challenging a court order freezing 10 million rand ($859,025) in his bank account, according to court papers seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>South African prosecutors were authorised to freeze 220 million rand, including 10 million which they said was illegally transferred to Atul Gupta’s bank account, as part of an investigation into fraud at a state-backed dairy project in the Free State province.</p>
<p>The three Gupta brothers, accused by the public anti-graft watchdog of using their friendship with Zuma to influence policy and amass wealth, have denied any wrongdoing, as has Zuma.</p>
<p>In the court papers filed in a court in the Free State province, Atul Gupta denied having received 10 million rand as alleged by prosecutors and said he was “currently outside South Africa.” The affidavit attached to the court papers was signed on Feb. 8 at the South African consulate in Dubai.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority confirmed the veracity of the court papers. A lawyer authorised to speak for Atul Gupta could not be reached for comment.</p>
<p>Police are searching for Ajay Gupta, Atul’s brother who has been declared a “fugitive from justice,” as part of their investigation into the dairy project.</p>
<p>However, the police aren’t looking for Ajay, a spokesman for the elite police unit, the Hawks, which targets organised crime and corruption, said on Friday. Johannesburg’s main airport said on Friday that Ajay Gupta had left South Africa for Dubai on Feb. 6. Last week, the Hawks raided several Gupta properties in Johannesburg as part of the investigation into the Vrede dairy. The project was meant to benefit the local community but prosecutors described it as a “scheme designed to defraud and to steal”.</p>
<p>Relations between the Guptas and Zuma, who resigned last week after being instructed to do so by the ruling African National Congress party, are the focus of a separate judicial inquiry into high-level state corruption.</p>
<p>A top judge will investigate whether the Guptas sought to influence the appointment of cabinet ministers and were unlawfully awarded state tenders.</p>
<p>South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has made fighting corruption a top priority.</p>
<p>$1 = 11.6411 rand Reporting by Alexander Winning in Johannesburg and Wendell Roelf in Cape Town, editing by James Macharia, Larry King</p>


Atul Gupta challenges South African asset freeze

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<p>This Friday there will be a memorial in Cape Town from one of the foot soldiers of South Africa’s struggle who partied with Nelson Mandela in her activist days and spent 27 years in exile for her pains.</p>


The life of SA’s heroine of the struggle, AnnMarie Wolpe

<p><em><span class="fn author-name">David Everatt |</span> University of the Witwatersrand</em></p>
<p>Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa – forgive me, President Ramaphosa – is self-evidently a private and reserved human being. Since his decision to contest the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), he has been the subject of an endless series of “think-pieces”, more or less informed including by this author, as well as a year or more of attack videos and smears from those he ultimately defeated at the 2017 ANC elective conference. His private life has been examined, and people have tried to double-guess every move he has made, or should have made, or is about to make.</p>
<div id="attachment_299189" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-299189" class="wp-image-299189 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Cyril-Ramaphosa_Sworn-in_GettyImages.png" alt="" width="850" height="511" /><p id="caption-attachment-299189" class="wp-caption-text">Cyril Ramaphosa sworn-in being sworn-in as President of South Africa on 15 February, 2018.</p></div>
<p>The man must be squirming. Worse than the attention, however, is his recent elevation to Messiah status in the media and the popular imagination. He maketh Zuma to bugger off. He maketh the currency to rise and pessimism to fall; he will cleanse where others defiled; and he may lead South Africans towards the promised land – or, for the non-believers, will it be down the garden path?</p>
<p>Messiahs are an expression of the need for the yoke of oppression to be lifted, by a god-anointed action man (there are precious few female Messiahs in history) who does what mere mortals cannot. Nelson Mandela was South Africa’s first Messiah, but was seemingly born for the role, relished it, and given the massive damage to economy and society in late apartheid, almost everything he did was inevitably positive. The economy grew, rainbows were believed in, the national football team <em>Bafana Bafana</em> were football champions. Anything was possible.</p>
<p>In Ramaphosa’s case, the context is horribly similar. The economy has been smashed by the labyrinthine tendrils of corruption and <a href="http://ewn.co.za/Topic/State-Capture">state capture</a> that have insinuated themselves into every aspect of public life, compounding those already present in the private sector.</p>
<p>For every state owned enterprise there is a private sector player like <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-kpmg-be-on-guard-south-africans-are-on-your-case-84478">KPMG</a>, and for every bribe that is accepted, someone else offered it. Zuma tended his corrupt garden well, and South Africa feels like it is the early 1990s again: <a href="https://m.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/understanding-and-addressing-political-violence-in-kzn-20170725">political killings</a> are rife in KwaZulu-Natal, the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/why-south-africas-economic-outlook-is-looking-bleak.html">economy</a> is in tatters, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/world/africa/raw-tensions-over-race-fester-in-south-africa.html">racial tensions</a> are high, the poor are <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=10334">getting poorer</a>, the rich richer, and the country’s sports people seem unable to win a game of tiddly-winks.</p>
<h2>What kind of president?</h2>
<p>What kind of president will Ramaphosa be? Will he, like Zuma’s predecessor Thabo Mbeki, gravitate towards foreign affairs, the African continent, and playing a global role in various summits and multilateral bodies? Or will he be more Zuma-like, and regard the secret and security forces as his natural base?</p>
<p>The last 10 days should have answered part of this question. Because of Ramaphosa’s chess moves the country has seen the true colours of everyone in the ANC’s top six leadership and beyond. He and all South Africans now know where many of his enemies are. Those desperate to be reborn Ramaphosa-ites have become visible, and he knows (as South Africans do) who can be trusted and who not. He has forced people to play their roles out in public, for all to see and learn, and better to understand the challenges he faces.</p>
<p>More importantly, the state utility Eskom has been completely reconfigured with a new board, and fear has begun to percolate through to all those eating South Africa’s public funds.</p>
<p>But the most significant moves were left to the very end. Zuma’s last day as president – not in any way coincidentally – began with the news that the home of the powerful Gupta family had been raided and arrests had been made.</p>
<p>The second masterstroke was to allow Zuma to show his true colours in a rambling interview on state television to the nation. Everyone was given a taste of what Ramaphosa has had to deal with.</p>
<p>Once Zuma knew that his time was up – his Gupta buddies being arrested, his son Duduzane being looked for and some of his lieutenants deserting him – he declined into self-pity.</p>
<h2>Zuma myths</h2>
<p>For years the world has been fed several myths about Zuma. That he was steeped in strategy and that he was a master tactician. There was also the fable that he had dirt on everyone and would never be outmanoeuvred, that even a wounded lion is dangerous, that he may be down but never out, and so on.</p>
<p>Instead, the terrible sadness of a crumpled bully was in evidence on SABC TV. He spent 30 minutes spinning silly yarns about the lack of accusations or evidence against him, insisting he was innocent, trying to blame anyone but himself. It laid bare the truth – Zuma is merely PW (Botha) rebooted. Apartheid president Botha, nicknamed the <em>Groot Krokodil</em> (big crocodile), was a hardliner who refused to leave office and alienated everyone even in his own National Party.</p>
<p>Zuma’s incoherent television appearance was an old jackal meeting an old <em>krokodil</em>. Each filled with a sense of victimhood, denying any wrongdoing, both responsible for destroying the economy, the social fabric, and any number of lives. Ramaphosa left Zuma to show all South Africans his overweening vanity, his inability to distinguish right from wrong, and his arrogance. Shakespeare could not have plotted it better. Ramaphosa emerged as the true strategist.</p>
<h2>A mere mortal</h2>
<p>Ramaphosa is no Messiah, and when the post-Zuma champagne corks stop popping, South Africans need to assess him as a mere mortal. One who is inheriting a country laid almost as bare as the country Mandela inherited in 1994.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa has a massive job ahead of him, in trying to reignite national pride, self-belief, and mutual trust. He also has to salvage the ANC’s reputation and win the next election in 2019, no mean feat in itself. It would also be nice to win a match or two.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91923/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />The man, rather than the Messiah, has shown he can move multiple chess pieces at once – and win. The last 10 days have seen him completely eclipse his enemies within, having defeated those without when he was elected ANC president in December. This will be a quiet president, in place of Zuma’s inane giggling and braggadocio that has gone. But as the saying goes, always watch the quiet ones…</p>
<p><em>This article was originally published on The Conversation. </em></p>


The Ramaphosa moment: how many Messiahs can one country take?

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<p>What do business people think of the winds of change brought by as a result of the Ramaphosa presidency? CNBC Africa reporter, Aviwe Mtila filed this report.</p>


SA’s wish list ahead of Ramaphosa SONA

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<p>Zuma’s resignation brings to an end the most calamitous era in our post-apartheid history, and will be celebrated by anyone who values our Constitution, our flag and our sovereignty; this is according to Save SA, Sipho Pityana.</p>


Here’s how Ramaphosa can restore confidence in SA govt

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<p>The rand has strengthened on the news of Jacob Zuma&#8217;s resignation and the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa&#8217;s President. Reviving South Africa&#8217;s economy is high on the agenda as we look forward to the budget.</p>


Ramaphosa must be brave enough to rid cabinet of corruption, says former JSE CEO Russell Loubser

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<p>Alan Mukoki, CEO of SACCI talks to Fifi Peters about what big business can expect from new leadership in the Presidency and about how next week’s budget is likely to unfold.</p>


SACCI’s Mukoki on business expectations from Cyril Ramaphosa and next week’s budget

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<p>Over the last nine years, former South African president, Jacob Zuma was haunted by numbers in his personal and public life. From the 18 charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering to the R249 million spend on his Nkandla home.</p>


Jacob Zuma

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Jacob Zuma

Op-Ed: Zuma trial means that his toxic legacy will haunt South Africa for some time

Abrahams says Zuma to face prosecution

DA to fight state footing Zuma’s legal fees

Zuma to have his day in court

Why black-owned bank VBS was placed under curatorship

How President Cyril Ramaphosa can fix SA’s growth

Explainer: What you need to know about SA President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet

South Africa must resist another captured president: this time by the markets

What SA’s leadership change means for business – Foluso Phillips

Atul Gupta challenges South African asset freeze

The life of SA’s heroine of the struggle, AnnMarie Wolpe

The Ramaphosa moment: how many Messiahs can one country take?

SA’s wish list ahead of Ramaphosa SONA

Here’s how Ramaphosa can restore confidence in SA govt

Ramaphosa must be brave enough to rid cabinet of corruption, says former JSE CEO Russell Loubser

SACCI’s Mukoki on business expectations from Cyril Ramaphosa and next week’s budget

Zuma’s nine years, nine lives

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