TOM EATON: Small steps forward are the best we can hope for
While politics does not have a beginning, a middle and an end we do need evidence that incremental moves are being made
Say what you like about Cyril Ramaphosa, you can’t fault his timing. By waiting until after the final episode of Game of Thrones to announce his cabinet, he has made sure it will only be the second-greatest disappointment of the year. I don’t want to compare the HBO television series to the ANC. One is a quasimedieval fantasy that has disgusted millions of fans; a vastly expensive production crammed with absurd characters and prophecies that are never fulfilled. The other is Game of Thrones. Both, however, have fallen foul of heightened — and then deflated — expectations. Intense disappointment is a powerful emotion. Politicians know it can also be dangerous: there is a strong case to be made that revolutions occur not when people are trapped in despair but when they have been given hope and then seen that hope extinguished. When Ramaphosa reveals his cabinet and reads out some of those familiar, disgraced names, there won’t be a revolution. There will be new names to temper our dis...
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