CYRIL RAMAPHOSA ELECTED - BUT WITHOUT HIS TEAM

Dear Employer

NEASA will formally congratulate Mr. Ramaphosa today on his election as the ANC president.

Mr. Ramaphosa may have awakened this morning with mixed feelings. He has a reformist agenda, but he knows full well that the ANC did not entrust on him the team to accomplish that. The ANC elected him and then bound his hands.

Three of the ANC’s ‘Top Six’ are Nkosasana Dlamini-Zuma supporters and very much linked to the current dispensation of corruption and state capture. The so-called ‘unity’ in the ANC is perhaps not good for South Africa; what we needed was a clean break from the past ten years.

Mr. Ramaphosa will face a huge challenge within the context of a very conflicted ANC – those who want clean governance and economic growth and those who want to protect their ill-gotten gains. Although South Africa did not get NDZ, ‘Zuma is still there’ – this is how the petrol-attendant fittingly summed it up this morning. That perhaps explains the jubilation of President Zuma last night just before the announcement of the outcome of the elections.

Business must give Mr. Ramaphosa its full support; for him to succeed South Africa needs to be a successful enterprise. In turn, business will expect of Mr. Ramaphosa to loosen its hands to enable South Africa to prosper.

Enjoy your rest.

Kind regards