While credit goes to Cyril Ramaphosa for being elected president of the ANC, it seems the vestiges of the Zuma era have trailed him substantially.
But for his and maybe Paul Mashatile’s election, we have the likes of Ace Magashule (think of the dairy farm where someone milked it and really an Orwellian Animal Farm), David Mabuza and his string of controversies in Mpumalanga (a far cry from the late Enos Mabuza), Jessie Duarte (a Zuma comrade) and wishy-washy Gwede Mantashe.
The real saving grace for Comrade Cyril was the court judgments that to an extent weakened Team Zuma.
To me, there was no way Team Zuma could have been outsmarted, and the Top 6 clearly shows how slick and how infiltrated the ANC currently is.
Cyril’s victory was a miracle.
The close defeat of KZN’s Senzo Mchunu was very disappointing, but bear in mind his home support was very divided and he came very, very close.
Let’s hope Comrade Senzo gets to be the next premier, and continues.
This will be a reversal of how Zuma was dropped as deputy by Mbeki.
Ramaphosa does not have an A team to work with and may end up being stifled in many ways within the party, when it comes to appointments of ministers and other officials or official action.
His cabinet will be very interesting.
This will have a hamstringing effect on running a clean administration and bringing crooks to book.
Ultimately there is only one question for Cyril, and that is to put the country first, and probably his biggest opposition is going to be from his party members.
Given his trade union and Codesa background, this will no doubt give him a slight edge, but will require very fancy footwork.