No more excuses, Mr President: get on with your reform agenda

President Cyril Ramaphosa went into the ANC’s 55th national conference a wounded man, with the Phala Phala scandal hanging over him.  He emerged with an emphatic victory that he will no doubt interpret as an endorsement of his presidency and the stance he has taken in cleaning up after the excesses of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

South Africans have every reason to celebrate a Ramaphosa triumph, but they will be expecting a lot more from their president in the months and years to come — if he survives Phala Phala. The majority of delegates evidently took the view that he is still the best man for the job.

When he won the ANC presidency in 2017 it was an important but somewhat hollow victory. He faced allegations of vote-buying, and he convinced himself that the quest for party unity was more important than considerations of public interest. In Ace Magashule he was saddled with a party secretary-general who, behind the scenes and sometimes openly, worked to frustrate him. 

In his cabinet, he felt obliged to include historic nonperformers such as Lindiwe Sisulu in the important tourism portfolio and, until her move to the speaker’s chair in the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as minister of defence. He found during the 2021 riots that in Ayanda Dlodlo he had an intelligence minister of uncertain loyalty, and a national police commissioner, Khehla Sitole, who failed to meet any of the expectations of the job. He even gave Arthur Fraser the top prisons job, placing him at the centre of the incarceration comedy around Zuma.

Now, Ramaphosa will have none of the limitations he thought he had last time around. He can expect, and even demand, support for his broader reform initiatives: the restructuring of the political administration of parastatals, especially Eskom; the continued drive for probity in government spending; fiscal conservatism,  to avoid a debt trap; and better performance from his cabinet.

Rebuilding the capacity of the National Prosecuting Authority remains an essential task. This not only to equip it to pursue suspects for state-capture crimes, but to counter surging crime affecting ordinary South Africans,  as well as politically inspired economic gangsterism, such as one sees in the construction sector.

The country has been treated to the spectacle of vicious combat between factions in the ANC and this has spilt over into the government. It has kept the party from addressing critical issues affecting the country and its people. Ramaphosa now has a team that can instil a far greater sense of responsibility and political maturity.

The time for looking over his shoulder and making excuses is over. It is clear that the option of a cathartic, winner-takes-all economic scramble as envisaged by some has been rejected. So too has Sisulu’s brand of faux militancy, which scorns black judges and attempts to introduce a fraught political agenda.

But the people want more from Ramaphosa. They want to see visible and dramatic improvements at hospitals, schools and public amenities. They want better policing and a diligent public service committed to service delivery. They want a society on a clear trajectory to improvement.

They’re tired of scandal and corruption. They want action. Ramaphosa is free to interpret his ANC election victory as he chooses; but  the people of South Africa know what they expect of him. And this time there can be no excuses.