To Brother Cyril Ramaphosa, With Love

Former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers and Secretary General of COSATU, Cyril Ramaphosa, in 1987 in the aftermath of the largest miners' strike in apartheid South Africa. Ramaphosa is now a businessman with interests in mining., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

To brother Cyril Ramaphosa, with love

November 14, 2013
Hildergade Manzvanzvike
Opinion & Analysis
Zimbabwe Herald

IT is nearly 20 years since ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa became a major talking point among Africans in the Diaspora.
The Internet was developing and chat rooms as we know them today were non-existent.

There were discussion groups called listservs and these home-away-from home discussion groups were called country-specific listservs. Zimbabweans had Zimnet; Malawi had Nyasanet; Cameroon had Camnet; Nigeria had Naijanet; Kenya had Kenyanet, etc.

When it was announced that former president Thabo Mbeki would be deputy to founding president Nelson Mandela, people from all corners of the globe with access to the Internet just lost it.

I followed the discussions on most of the “chat rooms”, and the support for Brother Cyril Ramaphosa was phenomenal.
Not that they did not appreciate Cde Mbeki’s role in the struggle for South Africa, but the argument that ran through the thread was that Cde Ramaphosa as leader of the mine workers’ movement played a pivotal role in the struggle because the National Union of Mineworkers, which he founded, was able to mobilise workers and the people, and when they refused to budge, they meant business. This was critical since the backbone of apartheid South Africa’s economy was its mineral wealth.

The actions of the trade union movement in South Africa led by, among others, Cde Ramaphosa dealt a heavy blow to the apartheid regime and its businesses.

Today’s industrial actions in South Africa are nowhere near what it was like during the apartheid days.

This was why some people believed that Cde Ramaphosa would naturally land the deputy presidency. They were placated when he went into business, and did extremely well.

Now, when opportunity knocks for him on the ANC’s succession ladder, he is a different Comrade. The political and economic terrain is different. He is now one of South Africa’s movers and shakers – a business tycoon whose impact cannot be ignored, just as much as he could not be ignored then.

However, as the 2014 general elections draw closer, is it time to remind Cde Ramaphosa that they have not forgotten; they will never forget and every generation will be reminded that had it not been for that NUM leader called Ramaphosa who commanded so much power and respect and caused so many nationwide strikes, South Africa would be different.

I felt it when there was so much hullabaloo about a statement attributed to you when you visited the Limpopo province last weekend. According to the Star newspaper, you told residents of Seshego that “if all South Africans don’t vote, we will regress. The Boers will come back to control us.”

Welcome to the real world brother Cyril. The demonisation and choruses of disapproval that your neighbours on the other side of the Limpopo have had to contend with for daring to say “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again” are a case analysis you can use to move on and still tell South Africans that if they snooze, the Boers are waiting to take over.

It’s time that someone at that level said that. Looking at the bigger picture, this is not about the ANC and Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters party. It is about you, the ANC, Cope, EFF, Agang and them – the Boers. And, this is no race card.

When you came out of the comfort zone through that statement, the backlash was expected. Some of your own black brothers and sisters cried more than the bereaved as they denounced your statement.

Congress of the People president Mosiuoa Lekota accused you of showing shameful disregard to the South African constitution.
In a statement he said: “Ramaphosa’s statement that the “Boers” will return to rule (SA) if people don’t vote for (ANC) is a shameful disregard to our constitutional democracy and it underestimates the intelligence of South Africans.”

He added: “It is irresponsible of Ramaphosa to agitate racial hatred amongst the people of our country in pursuit of votes.
“We never expected such disregard for the constitution . . . by the very man who contributed in writing that constitution.”

Interestingly, the remarks this writer read failed to show why the picture Cde Ramaphosa painted was a likely possibility. Why is the Democratic Alliance mantra being elevated above every other political party in South Africa and who is in charge of the DA?

When some diehard Afrikaners want a separate homeland the same way the apartheid system created homelands and a pass system for black people, why should people be enraged when they are told the truth?

As I said before, they don’t forget and they don’t forgive. When they colonised Africa, it became a personal property of Europe, which they parcelled out to one another.

Independent Africa has to play by the rules and best practices they craft. We are a long way from unshackling ourselves.
But maybe the Marikana saga was the turning point. As board member at Lonmin, Cde Ramaphosa was squeezed.

You knew that the NUM you led brought the apartheid system to its knees. The Lonmin strikes at Marikana were aiming at realising economic freedom and empowerment in a free South Africa.

Then came those leaked emails after the massacre of the striking miners by members of the South African Police Services. When you were fingered, I recall reading an opinion piece, which left me asking many questions.

Published by UK’s Guardian newspaper on October 25, 2012 and titled “Cyril Ramaphosa: Betrayal does not get more painful than this”, I asked myself what the motive was. It was as if you led a one-man board of directors.

This was published before you were elected ANC deputy president at Mangaung in December 2012. But, dissecting the piece, it was evident that not only was your future, but also that of the ANC already being mapped:
“What exactly was ANC national executive committee (NEC) member and business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa accepting blame and apologising for when he said he took responsibility for the Marikana massacre?

“In an interview with SABC radio, Ramaphosa said the killing of 34 mineworkers by police at Marikana following a protracted wildcat strike at the Lonmin mine should not have happened . . . ”

The conclusion was more ominous than the introduction: “But the most critical question remains: What happened to Cyril? Did excessive wealth steal the soul of one of South Africa’s greatest political heroes; the one who rose from the very working class that is now being torn apart?

“The one who was a silent hope, the man so many people wished were the president? A star has fallen. Forever.”

In retrospect the backlash to “If all South Africans don’t vote, we will regress. The Boers will come back to control us,” is within the context of this piece.

But, you have survived before. You will survive this onslaught.

They can’t take away what you said. They can only be mad, but so what? Like Eva Peron you can sing, “Don’t cry for me Argentina, the truth is I never left you . . . Don’t keep your distance”.

Adios Comrade!