President Cyril Ramaphosa inspecting a pothole repair. (X)
Tuesday.
I felt a bit sorry for President Cyril Ramaphosa at the weekend, during his visit to Delmas, Mpumalanga, when the head of state decided to participate in a pothole-filling exercise as part of an ANC service delivery campaign.
Not as sorry as I did for the residents of Delmas — they have to live there — but a tad sympathetic: filling holes in the road was surely not the New Dawn he had in mind for himself — or us.
The president failed to impress most of my fellow South Africans with his latest act of performative governance — how else does one describe tarring a pothole in a gravel road, instead of resurfacing it properly — believing that it was little more than yet another presidential photo opportunity gone wrong.
I beg to differ.
Tarring potholes in gravel roads — physically, politically and philosophically — is pretty much what Ramaphosa has been doing since his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, was recalled in 2018 and he took over as head of state, so why should we be acting all surprised by the weekend’s performance?
The step-aside rule, for example, has found about as much traction with the party’s structures as tar thrown on loose dirt, and may end up being eroded just as quickly, if things go wrong for him in December.
Not exactly the New Dawn Ramaphosa promised us, a century ago in 2019, but then again, we were way more dirt road than three-lane highway when he took over the job, so what did we expect him to do?
Spending most of the afternoon bent over giving directions to the roller operator also appeared to have played hell with the president’s back — either that or Ramaphosa hasn’t recovered from sleeping with millions under his mattress.
The presidential posture is awful these days — nothing like it was when he was taking walks on the Cape Town promenade during the Thuma Mina days, back when he could go out in public without fear of being questioned about what really happened at his farm in 2020 — or of being citizen-arrested by Carl Niehaus.
Being bent over and staring at the ground did allow Ramaphosa to effectively avoid making eye contact with the media contingent present, along with any embarrassing questions about the Phala Phala scandal they may have chosen to throw at him had he made the cardinal error of allowing them to catch the presidential gaze.
Perhaps there’s some good to be found in this.
There’s plenty of weekends between now and May 2024 — Ramaphosa says he’s given up cattle farming so his weekends are free — and more than enough potholes around the country to keep the president tarring — and out of trouble — until the next election.