Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa’s closing speech at the ANC’s 55th conference was as flat as a fizzy drink left uncovered.
It wasn’t inspiring or particularly energising. But it did the job, reminding party members of the aspects of his character that they admire.
It has been a dreadful week for the president, and so this is probably the best he could have hoped for as the conference was unable to finish its business.
Almost half of the delegates had already left without hearing what was supposed to be a memorable parting message.
His friends respect him as someone who keeps bulldozing his way through personal adversity that has been in existence since he first began his first presidential term in 2017.
He did that on Tuesday, appearing unfazed, not just by the calamitous conference that he was closing, but also by the staged legal battle against his immediate predecessor, Jacob Zuma, who was conspicuously absent from the hall to cheer up the new leadership collective.
Though Ramaphosa directed his criticism at attempts to divide the ANC and “to provoke us and to divert us from the tasks that we must undertake in advancing our national democratic revolution”, you may be forgiven for thinking that he was also aiming at himself and those who voted for him when he said, “this conference has expressed impatience at the pace of change and has given our deployees in government, in Parliament and legislatures and across society an instruction to act with extraordinary effort, urgency and purpose to implement these resolutions”.
He won’t be the one to fight his party in public, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those around him take this accusation of indecisiveness and incompetence to himself and other party leaders who have all along adopted a leisurely attitude towards pressing matters negatively affecting the socio-economic status of the country.
The problem is that while Ramaphosa’s speech did the job of directing our attention towards the longstanding challenges facing our country, the rest of the conference did not.
Instead, it focused on electing a new leadership collective.
It left the adoption of crucial resolutions and the conference declaration to January 5, when the conference reconvenes in a hybrid format to address outstanding issues.
Ironically, this is the priority business that should have been finalised and presented as the basis of choosing leaders capable of delivering on it.
Ramaphosa might have been able to justify some of the mistakes he and those remaining in the 2017 national executive committee made as being ones taken in a rightful rush to sort out the party political divisions he faced.
But they have also left even his supporters feeling they can’t unreservedly trust him enough on the big controversial calls that he still has to make.
After all, the recent opinion surveys also indicate a sharp decline in Ramaphosa’s popularity, let alone that of the ANC.
For that reason, however long he has left of his presidency will potentially be flat and far less rousing than most people would have hoped, unless he starts acting decisively to bring about the freshly promised changes.
That might be why he said there had been attempts to divide the ANC and “to provoke us and to divert us from the tasks that we must undertake in advancing our national democratic revolution”.
That might be why he also added that “there have been moments at this conference that have tested our unity and cohesion.
But thanks to the political consciousness and, for the most part, the discipline among yourselves as delegates, whatever differences among us did not distract us from the critical work that the people of this country expect and require of us.”
To be generous to Ramaphosa, his speech at least presented notable examples of a coherent vision.
He has a clear enemy – “those who steal from the people, whoever they are and wherever they are”, which includes those who voted him back to office on the promise of access to state contracts and lucrative jobs in the government.
His declaration that “we need to employ people because they are competent and committed, not because they are connected” doesn’t answer why his last five years as party and government leader have been accompanied by the longest declining performance in various government departments, including several municipalities.
Nonetheless, Ramaphosa’s concentration on party renewal and anti-corruption plans in the speech has flipped how his opponents discuss the overall approach to the party’s future deployment of its members to public office.
From questions of integrity checks, step-aside rules and accelerated professionalisation of the public service, they now discuss “competency above patronage”, the alignment of skills and getting value for taxpayers’ money.
The risk for progressives that support leadership continuity in the party and the promised redoubled efforts of implementing the party renewal programme is that these traditionally heralded priorities only appear to take precedence at just the moment the party spectacularly implodes.
Acknowledging that the party has not done enough to end corruption and state capture is certainly courageous from a leader whose party is polling fewer points in opinion surveys.
Urging party members to do more to remove obstacles to faster economic growth and job creation in the country has understandably received a muted response from conference delegates.
This is because of the absence of any pronouncements on his immediate action in the coming days and months “to act against those public representatives and officials who are delaying the vital reforms that we need to build a thriving economy”.
His tone in repeating what our leaders must do in the future has vanishingly little electoral appeal. So when protesting conference delegates disrupted his opening speech with banners saying: “We want change”, they may have been zoning in on party leadership.
Still, it is a pertinent call that can be applied to Ramaphosa’s entire urgent task in his second term as president of the ANC and most probably as the president of South Africa.
But the closing speech was unconvincing on the point of disruption if it only works for the party elite at the expense of everybody else and the country in which we all live.
Nyembezi is a policy analyst and human rights activist
Cape Times
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL.