By now President Cyril Ramaphosa would have digested the report of the panel he appointed to investigate the riots in July last year. After all, he’s had it for two months.
Not that the report should have surprised him. In 2018, Sydney Mufamadi’s high-level review of the State Security Agency gave chapter and verse of the intelligence service’s shortcomings.
Still, Prof Sandy Africa’s conclusions — placing much of the blame for the chaos that followed the jailing of Jacob Zuma on the factional ructions within the ANC — will be awkward for Ramaphosa to deal with.
For one thing, her panel identified "contestations … including between senior members of government", over how to characterise the anarchy. The then minister of state security, Ayanda Dlodlo, blamed "poverty"; Ramaphosa himself called it an insurrection, and was contradicted by his then defence minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who blamed criminal elements.
Disturbingly, the report warns that it’s only a matter of time before another outbreak. Will Ramaphosa, for once, shake off his lethargy, act on the recommendations and reassure a nervous nation? Dare we dream?