THE WAY AHEAD
AUBREY MATSHIQI: New president faces daunting challenge of bridging the gaps
Cyril Ramaphosa’s big challenge is to close the gap between reality and the ANC's rhetorical commitments
The main problem SA faces is the gap between the procedural and substantive dimensions of our democracy. For the better part of the past 24 years the uncompetitive nature of our political system reinforced this gap through the single-party dominance of the ANC. In other words, the gap was reinforced by a lack of substantive uncertainty in our electoral politics until the ANC suffered losses in 2016. Put another way, the 2016 elections signalled the arrival of substantive uncertainty in our electoral politics. The electoral losses suffered by the ANC coincided with growing levels of antipathy towards former president Jacob Zuma and his disciples — a coterie of ANC politicians who are regarded by many South Africans as the main drivers of corruption, state capture, rent-seeking and other things corrupt and venal. It is precisely this climate that produced the victory by Cyril Ramaphosa over Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the ANC presidential race. It is for this reason that, with the elect...
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