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.