In December 2012, then president Jacob Zuma listened to his advisors that the “markets” were not happy with his leadership and he needed a voice in his inner circle that industry would listen to.
These advisors plucked one Cyril Ramaphosa from relative political obscurity and thrust him onto the path of becoming president, a position he had long given up on when he was overlooked by Nelson Mandela for the position of deputy president in 1994.
All Ramaphosa had to do after being elected Zuma’s deputy, was to wait his turn. And wait he did. Waiting so silently that the country even almost forgot he was there.
He turned waiting silently into an art. So much so that even after he became president, it seemed he forgot that he now had to act; to do things proactively to get the country right.
Whenever immediate action is required of him with regards to one of his ministers, he waits. Right now he is waiting for something to help him sort out Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe, even when she has handed him scandal after scandal for which he could fire her.
The issue that is top of the country’s agenda is one that has to do with undocumented immigrants being targeted for forced removal from the country by organisations that have decided this country’s main problem is caused by these immigrants.
The president has mentioned the issue a couple of times in his numerous speeches. He has said nothing new, besides the tired old line that “South Africa is not an island and it was assisted by many other countries in its journey to freedom”.
That’s true. But this is useless information in the face of marauding amabutho under the leadership of self-appointed immigration officers Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Ngizwe Mchunu of March and March.
The president continues to wait. Maybe Ramaphosa needs to be reminded that waiting for something to happen on this particular issue resulted in tragic circumstances for former president Thabo Mbeki and his government when Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave was captured on camera being burned alive in 2008, as South Africans chose to do what March and March supporters are currently doing: becoming a law unto themselves.
The current atmosphere of fear that Ngobese-Zuma and her followers are creating in the name of cleansing South Africa will not end well. Is there justification to their claims that South African borders are porous and thus undocumented immigrants are taking opportunities and overburdening health and education services in this country?
It does appear that this is the case because their requirement that only South African ID cards be accepted for treatment at public hospitals has resulted in shorter waiting times and more available beds for locals, anecdotal evidence suggests. But this process is hugely flawed and inhumane.
Will a patient with a gaping head wound or a woman in the final stages of labour be turned away from hospital because their documents are not in order? What about the case of undocumented locals?
There are estimates that up to 4.4 million South Africans who should be in possession of an ID card do not have one. According to March and March, they, too, must not receive treatment at public hospitals.
This clearly shows that the approach must be to stop illegal immigration at the border. Terrorising individuals on the street is not immigration control, but lawless and bullying.
The president must stop his waiting and act. Immediately.
