EDITORIAL: The meaning of Ramaphosa’s re-election

The re-election of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the governing ANC was always a distinct probability. Not guaranteed was the mix of the top team.

The 4,000-odd delegates have now delivered their verdict, rejecting Oscar Mabuyane, his preferred choice for deputy, in favour of Paul Mashatile, the former treasurer-general.

Significantly, the members have picked Fikile Mbalula, the president’s choice for secretary-general, and re-elected Gwede Mantashe, one of the president’s enforcers and protectors, as party chair.

On a personal level, the win is big for Ramaphosa. It means party members are giving him the benefit of the doubt about the scandal at his game farm, the details of which he has yet to fully explain. Unlike in 2017, the margin of his win this time is bigger, strengthening his hand to carry out his renewal programme, which has often been stymied by the faction opposing him.

Ramaphosa will be expected to now heal the divisions in his party. For the second time, KwaZulu-Natal, the influential ANC province which backed Zweli Mkhize for the presidency,  failed to win a seat at the party’s top table. To their credit, the Mkhize delegates acted comradely at the conference after the results were announced. But the tough job lies ahead of making their supporters back home accept defeat.

Ramaphosa should not repeat the mistake he made during his first term: he spent way too much time trying to unite his party, some of whose members were simultaneously trying to eject him. His indifference was the result of the narrow margin of his victory over Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Also, he squandered a lot of goodwill trying to reluctantly implement foolhardy party resolutions. As a result, investors sat on piles of cash awaiting certainty whether the Reserve Bank will be nationalised or over the mode of expropriation of land without compensation. For obvious reasons, including no immediate benefits arising from wholesale nationalisation of land, this newspaper does not support either resolution.

If he is serious about recruiting investors to help him tackle unemployment and grow the economy, he should now face down his party and reject these resolutions. The constitution already has sufficient provision for expropriating land without compensation. Organs of state, such as state-owned enterprises, routinely expropriate huge swathes of land without requiring the constitution to be amended.

In the run-up to the party’s 55th national conference, his critics have been cynically asking what he plans to do with a second term that he could not do during his first term.

We were not delegates at the party’s conference. But his re-election means that he continues as president of the republic. That’s where our interest lies. We need — and expect him — to govern on behalf of the rest of us, not only the ANC or the ANC faction that made possible his Monday win.

Specifically, we need him to fix the country’s problems, especially the energy crisis that is hobbling the economy. Personnel changes and sending soldiers to Eskom’s power plants are part of the solution, but will not in and of themselves bring about an end to load-shedding. Courageous decisions will need to be made to ensure that the energy crisis — not Eskom — is resolved. Ramaphosa needs to stop the wrangling by Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan, two of his allies, over Eskom even if this means moving both of them.

And finally, before he becomes a lame-duck president, he needs to implement the Zondo commission’s report without fear, favour or prejudice. This means he can no longer delay action against those adversely cited in the state capture report, even if they are among his closest allies.