Only a president that promised citizens heaven and earth but delivered very little if anything would hide under the excuse that his or her administration was the most challenged.
Leaders who deliver or even appear to be delivering on their promises have no trouble explaining to the electorate; in fact they hardly come up with excuses because their work does the talking. Madiba was that kind of a president.
Certainly President Cyril Ramaphosa falls out of that category by miles.
He has a reason for that though.
That's because his administration has been the most challenged. That is what he wants South Africans to believe. He, of course, is laying the foundation for when he and his ANC comrades visit our homes to plead for votes for next year’s crucial elections.
Only those who woke up yesterday would believe such a lazy narrative.
Most of the problems that Ramaphosa presumably refers to are his and the ANC’s own making.
For a second, forget the global issues such as the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.
Take the crisis that Eskom has become. Add to that the failure to create an enabling environment for businesses to recover after Covid, and the crime rate that continues to shoot up every time police release the statistics.
The list is endless; but you get the picture.
Instead his “New Dawn” has been characterised by pleasing those close to him and appointing an endless list of commissions, advisory councils and task teams to do what the ministers in his Cabinet are paid for. He himself has been mired in controversy over foreign currency stashed in couches at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.
Ramaphosa cannot reasonably expect South Africans to believe the narrative that his presidency was the most challenged.
He came in at a time when the country was relatively stable economically. Five years later the picture looks gloomy. Even those with means to make ends meet are fast running out of options and will soon live from hand to mouth.
Ramaphosa et al made their bed and must now lie in it. Unfortunately most South Africans have been casualties of these mishaps.
Cape Times