RAMAPHOSA - SOUTH AFRICA'S MACHIAVELLI

In a Christmas message to the nation, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa "thanked South Africans for making the country a better place for all". Millions of South Africans would unequivocally disagree that it is "a better place for all". Ramaphosa is, however, correct in one respect: it is undoubtedly a far better place for him and his politically connected friends, while more than 12 million South Africans, based on conservative estimates, live in extreme poverty, and in a permanent state of despair and hopelessness. Who is he kidding? Ramaphosa is a consummate politician who has mastered the art of sound bite speech. His Christmas message is replete with sanitised sound bites filled with platitudes and generalizations. Consider his reference to . . . "Significant efforts to address the challenges facing the country - like poverty, unemployment and inequality". It makes a good sound bite especially in dishing up rhetoric over reality. It is a tactic designed to evade addressing specifics of the nature and scope of "significant efforts", because in reality, there are no so-called "significant" efforts that can be attributed to him or his party. As deputy president, Ramaphosa routinely employs sound bite speech. Consider again his unresponsive answers to parliamentary member questions. He will tangentially respond to the question, and then engage in vague generalization. In doing so, the person posing the question is either intimidated, confused, or frustrated , and backs down. Ramaphosa is not only a consummate politician, but in addition, well-versed in Machiavellian stagecraft. To paraphrase the French philosopher, Denis Diderot, it is a distasteful type of politics.