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Besides the theatrics in Parliament, there actually was a debate about the state of the nation.
The debate was around how President Cyril Ramaphosa is governing or failing to govern the country.
What the debate did for me was to underline that Ramaphosa is caught up in two separate, but interlinked battles in which he is trying to hold onto power within the ANC, while on the other hand he faces a loss of credibility as he has failed to be the reformer he was punted as.
In the debate on his address on Tuesday, it became obvious that EFF leader Julius Malema was bent on accentuating the differences inside the ANC as he knows that there is a sizeable chunk of ANC MPs who distrust Ramaphosa.
On the other hand, the DA was pointedly able to demonstrate that Ramaphosa has failed to make key decisions because he is being held back by his party.
Malema knows that a point of vulnerability is that the president is perceived to be too close to big business, and by extension therefore, less familiar with the issues that are close to the masses who vote for the ANC.
Malema opportunistically praised the deputy president David Mabuza for being rejected by Johann Rupert, seen as the ultimate symbol of the dominant white business in this country.
The EFF leader referred to comments by Rupert that he did not want Mabuza as president to insinuate that the deputy president must be doing something right (which Ramaphosa is by that logic, not doing).
“We need to pay closer attention to the deputy president. It looks like the deputy president has something to offer. That is why the Ruperts can’t have him as president,” Malema said.
With this sentiment, Malema sought to confirm the worst fears about Ramaphosa in his ANC critics’ hearts.
I actually doubt that Malema prefers Mabuza over Ramaphosa. What counts for him is to stoke that division and he would only be happy to benefit from it.
A not unthinkable scenario for Malema is where Ramaphosa’s internal enemies contribute minimally to the ANC’s local elections campaign next year, so that poor results from those elections would further prove how unsuitable Ramaphosa is to lead the ANC into the future.
The question therefore is, how does Ramaphosa win over those enemies so that he is not exposed on that flank?
Well, the answer according to the DA is that he is paralysed and refrains from taking any decisions because he fears to antagonise that faction.
This was the searing analysis of DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis. “Four times now the president has come to promise urgent reform and pledge leadership [at Sona]. The president promises major reform, the Treasury supports major reform, the official opposition supports major reform, the country wants major reform.
“So here is the very curious thing: where is the major reform? We have been promised it. But we do not have it. All of this begs the question: what is the point of the Sona if it is just a list of emphatic promises that most emphatically will not be delivered? The truth is this: we have a president in the grip of paralysis, and a government that is non-functional.”
Hill-Lewis produced facts and figures to show how the president had fallen short on the promises of improving the ranking on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business, reducing regulatory barriers for small business, visa reform and energy security, among others.
He bemoaned how the president was now making new promises that he was unlikely to fulfil either. The DA MP appealed to Ramaphosa to look beyond party consensus if he wanted to show decisiveness and leave a legacy.
These two speeches encapsulated where Ramaphosa is. He is worried about closing a line of attack that internal critics in the ANC are preparing to exploit against him ahead of the governing party’s national general council in July.
The other choice is to actually implement ideas that he announces and believes in.
It is your move, Mr President.
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