President Cyril Ramaphosa needs some big wins, but the politicians he brought back from the dead to become his ministers can’t deliver them. Their minds are frozen in time. Trust me on this: fighting corruption doesn’t win votes. It may get you applause in certain quarters, but it doesn’t deliver the masses.
Corruption is like a leak in the roof. You have to plug it because it causes damage inside, but doing so won’t help you sell your house. You cannot place an advertisement that says: “I’ve fixed the leak in my roof, so buy my house.”
Make no mistake, corruption has to be fought because it is a leak in the pockets of Treasury and a leak in the soul of society.
People vote for jobs, full pots and braai. As the economy vomits people out of factories and the VAT increase chokes them, there will be anger at the polls next year.
Opposition in ICU
Fortunately for President Cyril, the opposition is in intensive care. Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema offers nothing beyond comedic political rants, showing that he is still interested in what happens in his ex’s bedroom.
Hopefully, he pays heed to Nikita Khrushchev when he said: “If you feed people with just revolutionary slogans, they will listen today, they will listen tomorrow, they will listen the day after tomorrow, but on the fourth day, they will say ‘to hell with you’.”
The DA is unable to wake itself up from the nightmare that is Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, and may never wake up from it.
President Cyril is a winner. In leadership, you can hear a loser by his first words. If a leader, or manager for that matter, only blames the people before him, you know it is because they have no vision to offer. They want to look better by demonising others.
So when his ministers get on to the podium and blame former president Jacob Zuma, it is because they have no new ideas. President Cyril invited him and honoured him, but they never got the memo.
Some are mudwrestling executives at state-owned enterprises. Let them fight hard to get their trivial triumphs; the president and the ANC are paying for it, wasting money on lawyers and inconclusive commissions.
Madness continues
While the madness continues, the president is unable to deliver new jobs.
The president needs to be less corporate and bring back the man who made him a hero in the first place. His days before Shanduka, Johnnic and New Africa Investments.
The people want a president of the people and not a president for corporations. Businesses create the jobs and so he must maintain an excellent relationship with them, but they do not give him street cred. While the people wait for rain, he must be everywhere, and make them feel that things will get better and the bitter winds will pass.
In football, there is something called “playing for the manager”, which is lingo for following the leader. Once players stop playing for their coach, they are history. The president needs to get us South Africans to fall in love with our country again.
He must also get his ministers to think about jobs, jobs and jobs, rather than flex their treasured monarchic tendencies. He must let families visit South Africa with ease. Scrap Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s mountain of bureaucracy when they come here with their children.
Make it easier for small businesses to thrive so they can employ the millions of people and provide the jobs that his party promised. Sorry, Mr President, as they say, it’s hard to soar with eagles when you are chained to turkeys.
- Muzi Kuzwayo is the founder of Ignitive, an advertising agency. Views expressed are his own.
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