In the past few weeks, I have seen interesting reviews of how President Cyril Ramaphosa's presidency has unfolded thus far. It is a common practice all over the world to assess the president based on a hundred-day mark in office. That said, I find it difficult to make sense of what one can actually achieve in such a short period, given the fact that the job of being a president is an enormous task where progress is barely noticeable in hundred days.
Ramaphosa's story, however, is quite interesting in the sense that he was the deputy president before he became the president, which implies he was already familiar with some of the challenges confronted by South Africa even before he became the president. So he does not need an introduction to the government. As the saying goes, Ramaphosa has had to hit the ground running — and indeed, he is in a position to show something after a hundred days in office.
Expectations are high for Ramaphosa, both from within the ANC and outside the party. Within the ANC, he is facing the task of stabilising the party after the contentious elective conference that took place at Nasrec in December 2017. On this front, he is expected to get the ANC ready for the 2019 elections by managing the divisions that continue to tear the party apart.
He is also expected to set the ANC on the right course by neutralising those who did not support his presidency at the elective conference. He has to create an environment conducive for his detractors within the party to shift their allegiance away from Jacob Zuma and embrace the "new dawn" he is attempting to build. He cannot compel detractors to suddenly embrace him; all he can do is to present an attractive political vision that would make it difficult for anyone within the ANC to stay away from.
There are two cases that have tested Ramaphosa's progress in this regard; the KwaZulu-Natal case where Jacob Zuma's faction continues to rear its head, and the recent North West debacle, when protests erupted calling for Supra Mahumapelo to resign as premier.
Ramaphosa had already bagged brownie points for having facilitated the near-smooth exit of Jacob Zuma as president in February. Stabilising the KZN ANC requires that Ramaphosa tread carefully and avoids fuelling the perception that together with his allies, they are out to punish those who did not support him at Nasrec.
The broader public sentiments are that the new number one should indeed live up to his promises and take the fight to proponents of state capture.
The job of uniting the ANC will stretch for a long time, given the extent to which divisions within the party have been entrenched. With regard to this task, Ramaphosa can maintain that he found the ANC divided, and therefore he cannot be blamed for the persistence of those divisions.
His precarious power base within the ANC — due to a slim margin of victory he attained at the Nasrec conference — demands that he does not go all-out in his attempt to save the ANC from itself.
In addition to high expectations regarding stabilising the ANC, Ramaphosa is also confronted with the daunting task of uprooting corruption in the state institutions. Outside the ANC, expectations are that Ramaphosa should ensure that those who have been involved in state capture are not only weeded from state institutions — including state-owned entities — but they should also face the consequences and be jailed, where necessary.
The broader public sentiments are that the new number one should indeed live up to his promises and take the fight to proponents of state capture. This requires that he allows the law enforcement authorities to jail some of his comrades — the very comrades whose support he needs in order to realign the ANC away from the toxic Zuma politics. It's a Catch-22 for Ramaphosa.
Looking at what has happened in government since he took over in February, Ramaphosa sent a strong message that in key government departments at the forefront of economic policy, rotten apples will be removed. The public enterprise department has a credible minister, Pravin Gordhan, who enjoys legitimacy in the eyes of the finance community both locally and globally.
The question then is, is the glass half full or half empty? My answer is simple: the glass has been recovered, and it appears it won't get stolen again anytime soon.
Ramaphosa has also reappointed Nhlanhla Nene back to the Treasury, sending a strong message that where it matters the right decisions will be made, irrespective of how that might upset some within the ANC. By stamping his authority on key economic departments in government, Ramaphosa is begging for South Africa's readmission into the global market community — and the response has thus far been positive.
History has taught us that each and every transition comes at a cost — some of the wishes have to be forgone in the interests of bigger gains. There are expectations that Ramaphosa should summarily punish all ANC members who are alleged to have been engaged in wrongdoing in the past, including the likes of Mahumapelo.
The first hundred days of Ramaphosa in office show that not only are such expectations unrealistic, but they are based on misreading Ramaphosa's victory at Nasrec, where he barely survived to win the leadership contest. The question then is, is the glass half full or half empty? My answer is simple: the glass has been recovered, and it appears it won't get stolen again anytime soon.
Ralph Mathekga is one of South Africa's leading political analysts. He taught politics at the University of the Western Cape and worked as a senior policy analyst at the National Treasury.