Of all the presidents to date, Cyril Ramaphosa will probably have the most political space to shrink the government's hand in the South African economy, and it starts with reviewing the strategic importance of the more than 700 state-owned enterprises. In that review, which is perhaps his most important area of business when he officially starts his term, because of the fiscal pressures, he'll have to consider the full privatisation of some. And in more strategic sectors, such as energy, he'll have to at the very least consider "partial" privatisation to bring in much-needed capital injection. Such conversations in the administration of former president Thabo Mbeki were at the heart of the ideological battles he had with ANC alliance partners in the SACP and labour federation Cosatu. A struggle that would, in the end, lead to the succession of Jacob Zuma and to what everyone now admits were nine wasted years. I imagine that this must have been the state in which that "liberal champi...
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