Will the real Cyril Ramaphosa please step forward — revolution or peace?
19 July 2023
It was with surprise that the Afrikanerbond noted President Ramaphosa's Mandela Day stance yesterday. The newsletter declared the following: “As South Africa we hold fast to the ideal that a better world can be achieved through engendering peace. This derives from negotiation and compromise over violence, the use of force and resorting to war.”
This is the type of call one could expect to come from a president who advocates dialogue and compromise, and in normal circumstances it would be welcomed. However, it differs substantially from the speech delivered by ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa on 2 July 2023 at the ANC Youth League's 26th National Conference. There, he incited the youth to become militant revolutionaries. Indeed, Ramaphosa went on to confirm on that occasion that the ANC youth league was the revolution.
The president's pronouncements at the ANC youth league event were reckless and populist. With this he showed himself as just another political leader who has no control over his followers or "revolutionary fighters" and the way in which they experience and interpret his statements.
The president has damaged the dignity of the office, regardless of this conduct having been displayed at a political party event. Politicians and political parties must be cautioned anew that their populist and ideological statements and unbridled references to revolution are a dangerous game. In a South Africa that is confronted daily with riots, violence, thuggery, vandalism and crime, including murder, farm murders and political assassinations, such pronouncements are inexcusable.
Political leaders, including the president, with their demands and rhetoric get away too easily with incitement to violence, and it has been allowed to become part of the South African vocabulary. The same political leaders shrug their shoulders indifferently at warnings that their rhetoric may have direct and fatal consequences. Political murders, especially in Kwazulu-Natal, were investigated by a Commission of Inquiry (the so-called Moerane Commission), which published a comprehensive report with recommendations. An interesting finding reads http://www.kznonline.gov.za/images/Downloads/Publications/MOERANE%20COMMISSION%20OF%20INQUIRY%20REPORT.pdf) "There was evidence that language used by politicians is sometimes provocative and incites violence, contributing to the murder of politicians.” The question is whether the "provocative and inciting language" used by politicians can be limited to the murder of politicians alone?
We would expect the president to set an example. We have long been warning that inflammatory language is part of South Africa's dilemma. Under what pretext does the president preach peace while at the same time inciting his party's youth members to act in a militant and revolutionary manner? Will the real Cyril Ramaphosa STEP forward? Statesman or instigator? He cannot be both. The country calls for leadership, and his actions do not show it. This is the great disappointment of the government of Cyril Ramaphosa.
Issued by Dries Wiese, Chairperson, Afrikanerbond, 19 July 2023
