South African political analyst Khaya Sithole has lauded the influence of President Cyril Ramaphosa in the successful performance of the African National Congress (ANC) in the 2019 national and provincial elections despite the ruling party’s slight loss of ground.
The analyst argued that Ramaphosa’s election, as is currently anticipated, would boost the country’s economy as South Africa attempts to create a better life for every citizen.
Speaking at the Independent Election Commission’s National Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Pretoria on Friday, Sithole said Ramaphosa had over the past year signalled his intention to stabilise the country’s fortunes after nine years of decline under former president Jacob Zuma.
This was at a time when the country was experiencing poor economic management, high levels of unemployment and poverty, poor growth rates as well as two downgrades – now considered as the Zuma legacy.
With more than 88% of the ballots counted as at 2.30pm (1230 GMT) on Friday, Ramaphosa’s ANC was leading the race, with 57.25% of the votes. This might not have been the case had Ramaphosa not been at the helm, Sithole said on Friday.
What makes the president unique, Sithole said, is that he has decided that in order to run a functional state he needed to do particular things.
“He has done a lot of those things, even before this election. I think that momentum will carry on. Even if a lot of opposition parties might disagree with him on a lot of things, none of them would dispute that fixing state institutions is something that needs to be done.
“So if he continues with that momentum, he will be able to build a far more capable state,” the analyst said.
According to Sithole, Ramaphosa has done some work to arrest the decline in voter support following Zuma’s damages with his allegations of state capture in cahoots with his self-described family friends in the name of the Gupta Brothers.
The Guptas secretly jumped the border are now hiding in Dubai, enjoying the wealth they hauled from South Africa following their looting of state owned companies like state-owned power utility ESKOM, public media firm SABC-TV, state-owned rail road transport and manufacturing systems and the Gupta coal mines that supplied coal to ESKOM, among other sectors.
In 1994 the ANC took 64% of the vote under Nelson Mandela. In 2014, the governing party under Jacob Zuma registered a 62% victory.
Sithole and his fellow analysts were now anticipating the ANC to win the 2019 election, albeit with around 57% of the vote.
Sithole said this figure would not be catastrophic for the party – for now. But the political analyst urged Ramaphosa to consider looking beyond his party when forming his next cabinet in an effort to solidify his support base, which has been weakened due to the ANC’s current divisions that have seen the party split into Ramaphosa and Zuma factions.
“Use the other parties to create a new support base which is centrist, which puts South Africa first and is focused on economic growth, on redress, and in that process, creating a better life for all,” he said.
NM/jn/APA