EXTRACT
While Ramaphosa makes progress closing down the state capture thieves, he is in more trouble by the day in policy and the economy. The land debate is pretty much already out of control. Gwede Mantashe, of all people, is now giving detailed briefings on how big your farm should be - 12,000ha, he says, is quite enough and if you have more the rest should be expropriated without compensation. Not only does he ignore the fact that 12,000ha in Mpumalanga is probably a lot more productive than 12,000ha in the Northern Cape, but the markets are watching his antics and, in the total silence on the matter from the president, marking our economy accordingly.
Ramaphosa has to start communicating better. Thabo Mbeki used to write a weekly newsletter which was well read and eagerly anticipated. There's no reason Ramaphosa can't do the same. If he has a plan, or just a vague outline of a plan, he should talk about it constantly. The land debate on its own could do us enormous damage before even one hectare is expropriated.