Cyril Ramaphosa plays it. The strange theft of 4 million dollars from a farm he owned has broken the trust placed in the South African president and questioned his re-election when he plays, back in 2024. The case inspires a usual political ‘thriller’, one of those with a complex plot and culprits difficult to identify that seem to refer to the cloudy conspiracy theory. The former head of national security has denounced the crime and has assured that the thieves were kidnapped and bribed by the employees of the hacienda so that they would not confess their action, while the political opposition suggests money laundering. The last upright politician on the local public scene is under suspicion.
The case, already known as the ‘farmgate’, can sink the already very deteriorated image of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party since the country began its democratic stage. Since then, Nelson Mandela, the father of the country, has been the only leader who has kept his ethical stature impeccable. Behind him, during the struggle against the apartheid system, was Ramaphosa. He was the gray brain, a man who has always held important positions until, four years ago, he became president as a substitute for Jacob Zuma, the leader involved in all kinds of bad practices.
The current president (Soweto, 1952) is key in the construction of the new republic. His political significance began in student organizations, militancy that led him to an isolation cell for eleven months and another stay in prison for about another half a year. His release allowed him to finish his law studies and start a brilliant career supported by his status as legal advisor to labor organizations. He participated in the formation of the influential Congress of the South African Trade Union (COSATU), a real lever for its projection, and was secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers.
Team leader
The resistance was called Madiba inside the country and Mandela beyond its borders, but in reality, Ramaphosa’s role was crucial in engineering change. While the former was in prison on Robben Island, the latter served as head of the team that negotiated the end of the segregationist regime and the conditions of the transition. After the release of the hero, he did not lose prominence since he was elected president of the Constituent Assembly.
The irresistible rise of the impeccable manager stopped in 1997, when Thabo Mbeki beat him in his race for the head of the Executive. So, he took a step back and focused his efforts on becoming a millionaire, a purpose in which he was as successful as in his previous political career. The shadow of corruption and excessive ambition have hung over the black elite that has come to power in South Africa. The sudden appearance of the ‘black diamonds’, a new oligarchy made up of politicians and businessmen who became rich overnight, has provoked public disaffection and seriously eroded the ANC.
Cyril Ramaphosa could not simply acquire respectable capital. No, he has never been a man of mediocrities. He created the Shanduka Group, a trust with investments in energy, telecommunications, banking, real estate or insurance. He was president of the company MTN, one of the largest in the continent in the field of mobile telephony, and in 2014 he was credited with 30 properties in Johannesburg alone and a fortune of 450 million dollars that placed him among the richest in the entire continent.
In 2014 thirty properties were attributed to him in Johannesburg alone and a fortune of 450 million dollars
Business was not incompatible with political struggle. Ramaphosa remained at the top of the party and in 2012 he was elected vice-presidential candidate, a position he began to hold two years later, after Zuma’s electoral victory. His credit kept growing. He was the voice of fighting experience and the spirit of reconciliation, the best heir to Mandela’s legacy. In 2018 he replaced the president, pushed to resign due to widespread rejection.
the voice of reason
His coming to power was interpreted as a gesture of redemption from the ANC. Ramaphosa was the moral rearmament and the voice of reason and she was welcomed across the political spectrum. She had built a reputation for herself as an effective, open-minded and upright politician, who declared herself committed to the fight against corruption at the international level. In 2000 she participated in the mission that supervised the disarmament of the Provisional IRA. Interestingly, the former trade unionist had not been too affected by the fact that the Marikana mine massacre, in which dozens of workers were shot from behind, belonged to the Lonmin company, of which he was a director and shareholder.
The support began to crack when controversies began to emerge due to his ability to alternate business and institutional chairs. The risk of falling into influence peddling seemed obvious. The Glencore scandal hit him hard. This company, of which he was a director, was accused of illegally obtaining a contract to supply coal to Eskom, the local energy giant.
Ramaphosa’s political action has also drawn criticism. His agrarian reform program, based on expropriation without compensation, has altered the coexistence between the different communities. The economic reactivation plans have also collided with the reality of the social abyss. The violent riots of the past year show the dissatisfaction of the black majority. Now, his future depends on $4 million that shouldn’t be there, in one of the many possessions of a seemingly honest and extraordinarily wealthy president.
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