The enormousness of the tasks that have been set President Cyril Ramaphosa showed on his face when he entered the briefing room to the side of the Tuynhuys banquet hall on Thursday evening for a meeting with members of the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef).
He had delivered his first response to the debate on the presidency's budget vote as head of state earlier in the afternoon, and his drive to rid the body politic of the toxic remnants of state capture and the Zuma era seemed to be picking up speed. The terms of reference for the inquiry into Sars were published the same day, sweeping changes to the boards of a number of state-owned enterprises were announced in the morning, while a new head of the Hawks was confirmed — and details of the long-anticipated inquiry into state capture announced by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo — in the afternoon.
But Ramaphosa looked worried and spent when he arrived at the Sanef meeting, accompanied by Cassius Lubisi, director-general in the presidency, his spokesperson Khusela Diko, adviser Steyn Speed, presidency official Tyrone Seale and ANC NEC heavyweight Zizi Kodwa. He avoided eye contact and made no attempt at friendly banter before he took his seat at the head of the room.
"You guys talk about my first 100 days... it feels like we've been at it for 300..." he quipped at one stage during the 90-minute engagement. Ramaphosa considerately answered all questions put to him, looking his inquisitors in the eye and speaking softly, in measured tones.
The list of crises he needs to attend to is almost endless. He is head of an inefficient government, beset by corruption and state capture, and leader of a weakened governing party, riven by division and conflict.
Ramaphosa will have to root out corruption in the state by making unpopular and far-reaching decisions. In order to do that, he will have to keep his fractured party together to ensure compliance. But in his attempts to keep his party together, he may well be unable to make the deep cuts in state and government that the fight against corruption and maladministration demands. It seems to be a question of national interest versus party interest — and it seems they are mutually exclusive.
At one point during the meeting, after a question by Daily Maverick's Janet Heard about the difficulties in managing the government and the ANC, he sighed audibly and, almost forlornly, said: "Such is the work to ensure unity in the party..."
Ramaphosa's opening remarks, delivered off-the-cuff and without notes to the gathered editors, was a reminder of the mess Jacob Zuma and his acolytes left behind: state capture, a moribund economy, dysfunctional municipalities, a stressed healthcare system, increased unemployment and a failing education system.
There were very few light moments during the session, with the dialogue being dominated by issues around race relations, the economy and state capture. Ramaphosa reiterated that job creation will be his government's main focus and that the country must be repositioned and made attractive to local and foreign investors. He spoke of Charles Schwabb, the World Economic Forum founder, who plans to bring 100 international investors to the government's investor summit in November and of requests from Nairobi to hold an investors' fair in the Kenyan capital.
But the spectre of corruption and a broken bureaucracy remained throughout, with Ramaphosa at various times making remarks like "we don't want an ineffective and corrupt government... when you run something you must run it properly... we need accountability".
His face did light up when he was asked about his leadership style, likening it to that of late former president Nelson Mandela. He told editors that he prefers Mandela's consultative style over imposing decisions from above, because that ensures that whatever decision is made carries credibility and is reached by consensus. "But even Madiba didn't always get what he wanted," Ramaphosa added.
He conceded it will be an arduous task to correct the excesses and criminality of the lost decade under Zuma. "Will it [government's efforts] yield immediate dividends? I guess not. There are certain practices and certain behavioural attitudes which have seeped in [into the state and government] ... it will take time."
He was questioned about race relations twice — by Adriaan Basson (News24) and by Mondli Makhanya (City Press) — and admitted that was worried and concerned. He told Basson the ANC retreated from its position on nonracialism, but didn't want to engage Makhanya, who told the president the country is "extremely polarised" and that "things are bad". He did however tackle the matter during his address to the National Assembly earlier on Thursday.
On Friday it will be 100 days since Ramaphosa replaced Zuma as president. During that time, he has reconfigured Cabinet, started the wholesale clean-out at state-owned enterprises, targeted the parasitic Guptas and their hosts, made the economy his primary focus, navigated populism and pragmatism in the land debate, removed one hostile provincial premier and sought to neuter another, armed the state-capture inquiry, suspended the Sars commissioner, launched a probe into the tax authority and removed the country's top spy from his position.
The entrance hall at Tuynhuys is filled with antique Cape Dutch furniture, enormous yellowwood showcases and dark stinkwood chairs. A worn-out Persian carpet covers the old floors, while a portrait of a colonial governor adorns one wall. And on a plaque, which denotes all the governors, governors-general, state presidents and democratic heads of state that have used Tuynhuys since 1751, underneath the inscription "J.G. Zuma", and following the names of Governor Simon van der Stel, P.W. Botha and Nelson Mandela, is the name M.C. Ramaphosa.
And his tasks seem as daunting, if not more so, than those that the names before him had to face.