A president who keeps mum is not a sustainable option

Ahead of Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as president of the ANC at the party’s conference of November 2017, and before the 2019 general elections, South Africa – its democratic institutions, the rule of law, state-owned entities, social cohesion, and the people of South Africa in general – had been consistently, intensively, abused and pained for some 10 years. The hunger for something else, something different, had been palpable. Come the 2019 general elections, we had been reduced to finding and electing the least of all the political evils placed before us.

To many, Ramaphosa seemed to be the man who could stand aside from the rot, the national derailment, and lead South Africa back to, at least, a semblance of inclusive democratic order with a restored rule of law. The political and ideological proximity between his then-contender for the top post, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to unrepentant individuals – now seriously implicated in various acts possibly treasonous crimes – ensured that there was a halo of sorts above the head of Ramaphosa.

As deputy president to the institutional wrecking ball that the Zuma-led ANC administration had become, and deputy president of the perennially factionalised ANC (yes, the same party that used to be at the forefront of the anti-apartheid struggle, with venerated leaders like Nelson Mandela, Albertina and Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, and many others), Ramaphosa was believed to hold possible solutions to South Africa’s systemic reputational and institutional rot.

We had to believe in something, in someone, if we were to keep the dream alive that South Africa could still be saved, restored to lead, at least ethically and emotionally, in an African continent that had been in dire need of credible leadership, to restore the pride of the vast black/African diaspora, and the rest of the observing world.

At the time, Ramaphosa was also remembered as the man who co-led, with the erstwhile National Party’s Roelf Meyer, the post-apartheid process to draft a new, inclusive, Constitution of a democratic Republic of South Africa. In fact, many chose to disregard everything else since those early years of post-apartheid South Africa – including how a former trade union leader became a dollar billionaire thanks to his proximity/access to political power, within a relatively short space of time.

Reputational goodwill dealt a blow

Frozen in memory, for some, as the man who stood next to Nelson Mandela as he addressed multitudes of excited South Africans and foreign observers outside the city hall in Cape Town soon after his release from incarceration, Ramaphosa was blessed with a unique, credible, political pedigree.

Why, many wondered aloud on social media, would a man who led the writing of South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution tolerate daylight abuse of it by his comrades?

READ?|?Ramaphosa remains noncommittal, says he will not answer any questions about farm scandal

On the face of it, Ramaphosa has been a lucky ANC president in the broader society in that even people who would like to see the back of the ANC would rather have him gently leading it out South African politics than someone else.

It's a reputational goodwill that has, in the interim, been dealt a devastating blow.

Reputationally speaking, Ramaphosa has been like a cat which has always landed on all fours. While many South Africans have long given up on the ANC regaining past glory, they have held on to the idea that Ramaphosa means well and would have done even more, had he not come out of the 2017 electoral conference with a very narrow margin and fragmented Top Six and NEC leadership.

But now, faced with tough questions about a burglary on his farm, the president is keeping mum. And it's not a sustainable option.

Anyone who gets appointed to face the media and public on behalf of a political brand as complex as Ramaphosa – a real moving target – must come armed with a strong, persuasive personality, but also master the art of using gentleness and charm when needed.

But they must not be arrogant and inaccessible. When needed, they must know how to be forceful, especially when demanding the right information, the truth, internally, to help them craft appropriate messages to engage the media and other stakeholders.

They must not just be "runners" who play no part in developing the messages; but informed strategic communication advisors who can be equally relied upon by those who employ them and those they must engage with, on the outside.

And they cannot be evasive.

Tightrope

They cannot win in their game when they fear and are obsequious towards their clients/employers. And they cannot win if they help their 'charges' with obfuscation and the dodging of important questions, using legalese as an excuse, in times of crisis - such as where Ramaphosa currently finds himself.??????

Facts, nothing but the facts, are essential tools for people tasked with protecting and enhancing reputation, as they allow them to craft messages that will adequately respond to media and public inquiries while also protecting the fragile position of their employer. The absence of facts reduces them to spin doctors who risk finding themselves to be the only persons standing – with damaged professional reputation – when the lights eventually come on again, as they always do in the end.?

Strategic communicators are not magicians who can make the truth disappear forever. Their job is to help their employers tell the truth in a way that enables them to still walk straight even if they might still have legal consequences to face for their actions.

It remains to be seen whether Ramaphosa – aided by his strategic communications team – will stick to the route of obfuscation and kicking the ball further down the road, or of squaring up with South Africans about what went down on his farm in February 2020.?

No doubt, it’s a tightrope to walk when faced with potential sanctions in the courts of public opinion, the courts of justice, and at his party’s elective conference in December. But his political legacy also hangs on how he manages it.??