Cyril Ramaphosa the ‘worst president’ SA has seen, according to experts.
The wave of Ramaphoria long dissipated, critics and analysts alike have labelled President Cyril Ramaphosa as the “worst President” South Africa has seen.
This paints him in a worse light than even corruption-tainted Jacob Zuma, whose uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is predicted to steal a chunk of support from the African National Congress (ANC) in an important province like KwaZulu-Natal.
“It’s not an accident that people say ‘he’s the worst president’. All the parties in government – whether you talk about the DA, you talk about the EFF, you talk about the ATM – there is no doubt that Ramaphosa has failed,” said political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe.
He went on to add that Ramaphosa’s image on the global stage was also being painted negatively, as he struggled to reign the tentacles of corruption within his party and government.
Recent polling data have predicted a bloodbath for the ANC, the party of Nelson Mandela that has held the key to the Union buildings since 1994. Most recently, a Social Research Foundation (SRF) poll found that ANC support in KwaZulu-Natal could plunge as low as 25% – compared to the 54% it bagged in 2019.
SMread: Parties posturing on Palestinian cause in hopes of electoral victory
Failure to tackle corruption
One of the main challenges during Ramaphosa’s administration was the renewal of the ANC. He came in with a promise to fight corruption and forge unity amid factional battles in the party. But Seepe, like many others, was of the view that “we must accept that he has failed in that regard”.
Relying on data from Afrobarometer, he said: “Under Ramaphosa, corruption has become entrenched and has actually flourished”.
“When you talk about corruption, even if you say there was corruption under Jacob Zuma, we now have statistics, we have perceptions by people [and] we have peoples’ experiences,” he said.
The SRF poll, which surveyed 820 registered voters in KwaZulu-Natal, placed the MKP at 24%. This was a clear sign that Zuma, the man widely viewed as responsible for state capture, still enjoys large support in his home province. Other polls also placed the ANC below the 50% threshold, predicting coalition politics on a national level was imminent.
