‘You need to know what they are feeding on and how they=20 are behaving, then decide on a strategy.’ This is=20 Cyril Ramaphosa speaking not about his tactics in=20 parliament, but about one of his greatest passions:=20 trout fishing. Lesley Cowling reports
There is an urban legend which gives the trout a broker’s=20 role in South African history. This settler fish, deified=20 in countries like Britain and America for its ability to=20 outwit fishermen, is credited with bringing together two=20 key South African strategists: Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf=20
The story goes something like this: the two men, at a=20 crucial stage of the Kempton Park negotiations, repair to a=20 fishing lodge in the Dullstroom hills in the Eastern=20
As the mists rise from the sparkling waters of a dam, the=20 two cast their lines back and forth, and in the peace and=20 satisfaction that comes to all fly fishermen seeking to=20 snare a fish, they cement a friendship which will carry=20 them, and the country, through a difficult time.
It is the stuff myths are made of. The truth, of course, is=20 quite different.
Four years later, nine floors up in the grey pockmarked=20 building known as Shell House, in central Johannesburg,=20 Cyril Ramaphosa laughs at the story. He is wearing a bright=20 yellow rain jacket that would send any trout worth its salt=20 dashing for cover, yet somehow gives him the look of a=20 seasoned angler.
“Roelf Meyer didn’t know how to fish — he’s a hunter,” he=20 says, with an air of gentle indulgence. For it is=20 Ramaphosa, the boy from Soweto who was never allowed into=20 the Orlando Power Station dam to fish, who is the=20 consummate fly fisherman in this story.
For Meyer, the first experience of this aristocratic art=20 was a painful one. He had been invited to a trout lodge for=20 the weekend by a well-meaning friend who was trying to=20 bring him and Ramaphosa together. But during his first try=20 at casting, he caught a hook in his finger. Ramaphosa had=20 to yank it out, after plying Meyer with a stiff whisky.=20
Ramaphosa jokes now that the only contribution trout=20 fishing made to the negotiations was that he learnt how his=20 opposite number looked when he was anxious and in pain.
And he had to return to the city and explain to his=20 colleagues how he came to be hobnobbing with a political=20 adversary. “Trout fishing has often got me into trouble,=20 mixing me up with people I knew I shouldn’t be with,” he=20
Luckily, his colleagues understood and President Nelson=20 Mandela even saw it as useful: “He thought that=20 opportunities like this help us get to know the other=20
But there was much teasing about Ramaphosa’s addiction to=20 an activity that is hardly politically correct — teasing=20 that still continues, he laughs.
“It has always been seen as a bourgeois sport, not for the=20 rank and file,” he adds.
Ramaphosa argues strongly against this view, pointing out=20 that the elite aspect of trout fishing is the result of so=20 many waters being privatised and hatcheries being taken=20 over by syndicates.
The state should support trout fishing, making more waters=20 public and stocking them with fish, so that anyone can=20 enjoy it. “My mission is to draw more and more people into=20 this noble sport,” he says.
He has started by persuading fellow parliamentarians to=20 give trout fishing a try. He claims to have made an=20 enthusiast of Valli Moosa, Deputy Minister of=20 Constitutional Development, Provincial Affairs and Local=20 Government, and to have piqued the interest of Brigitte=20 Mabandla, Deputy Minister of Arts etc.
Despite the self-deprecating smile with which he talks of=20 this passion of his, Ramaphosa does not deny that he buys=20 into the zen view of fly fishing. For example, he would=20 usually eschew the waders he donned for a television=20 programme in which he went fishing with Evita Bezuidenhout,=20 even if waders make one look the part. Waders are mostly=20 not worn by “your seasoned trout fisherman”, he says.=20
“They think you should just go in with your trousers and=20 boots, have a real feel for the water and the stream, and=20 try to be as natural as possible. That’s where the fun=20 comes in — where you can just forget everything around you=20 in outwitting a fish.”
The comment is lightly made, with a certain self-irony, but=20 it immediately separates him from those who think that fly=20 fishing is simply a fun, relaxing sport, and places him=20 alongside Robert Redford (director of A River Runs Through=20 It), Richard Brautigan (author of Trout Fishing in America)=20 and the growing numbers in Britain and America who see=20 trout fishing as a meditative, almost spiritual, occupation=20 which can teach you about yourself and life.
“Trout fishing teaches you patience and to accept failure,=20 because you can go out there and not catch anything. It’s=20 an important attribute in life — you may not always get=20 what you want and trout fishing teaches you that.”
It may teach me and you that, but Ramaphosa is being modest=20 when he talks about failure. He easily mastered the art of=20 tempting trout, learning to make a piece of twisted fibre=20 fly like an insect over the water and catching an amazing=20 number of fish on his first real fishing expedition.
It all started 10 years ago, when he was on holiday in the=20 Drakensberg and came upon a fly fisherman casting. “I=20 looked at the way he was flicking his rod and the artistry=20 of it all attracted me. I approached this person and said:=20 ‘Can I try?’ I didn’t catch a fish, but I was hooked.”
Soon after, he bought some tackle and decided to go to the=20 Eastern Transvaal to try his hand. “I caught 20 fish. You=20 can’t imagine the excitement that filled my heart,” he=20 says. He has fished every year since, whenever he can get=20 away, which is not as often as he would like — once or=20 twice a year.
He has also become involved in related trout fishing=20 activities — smoking or cooking trout and learning to tie=20 flies. A friend has tied him his own special fly, called=20 “Cyril’s choice”, in ANC colours.
Ramaphosa says it puzzles the trout. “They get irritated=20 and just go for it. I have caught a good number of fish=20 with it.”
But this is not the usual approach to catching and landing=20 a fish. Committed trout fishermen, like the clergyman in A=20 River Runs Through It, know that it takes a lot more than=20 simply throwing your line into the water and they believe=20 that anybody who does not know how to fish should not be=20 allowed to disgrace a fish by catching it.
Ramaphosa is of this order of fisherman. “You need to know=20 what they are feeding on, spend time sitting quietly and=20 surveying the water, see how the trout are behaving and=20 then decide on a strategy. You have to be a tactician, have=20 to have a strategy.”
The pay-off is not just the joy of outwitting and catching=20 the fish — it’s that mysterious zen thing so many trout=20 fishermen experience and which a trout fisherman-turned- writer has called “a spot of time”, “eternity compressed=20 into a moment.”
Ramaphosa feels it, too. “Fishing reconnects you with=20 nature,” he says. “You get to be at peace with your=20 surroundings. When I fish, all else melts away.”