That’s more like it, Mr President

President Cyril Ramaphosa passed the leadership test on Sunday; now he needs to show the same leadership on the economy.

Over the past few months, especially since he assumed office as head of state after the May 2019 general elections, Ramaphosa has been seen as indecisive. He has been perceived — not without reason — to have been preoccupied with efforts to hold the ANC-led alliance and its disparate factions together at the expense of the country, at a time when SA desperately needs bold leadership and tough decisions to be made in an effort to salvage our economy.

That we are in trouble as a country has not been in doubt, even on the part of those on the left of both the tripartite alliance and our politics who are fond of platitudes and radical-sounding slogans.

Differences have occurred, however, when it came to the kinds of actions necessary to arrest the economic decline — which has led to huge retrenchments and, consequently, frightening levels of unemployment — and to turn the situation around. Typically, the usual suspects have advocated adoption and implementation of the same type of populist, socialist dogma which has reduced Venezuela and Zimbabwe to the economic basket cases that they are today.

The situation in which SA has found itself over the past year — during which we have twice experienced recessions and business confidence fell to its lowest since 1985 when apartheid SA was on the receiving end of punitive international economic sanctions from a growing number of countries — has cried out for inspirational leadership which would have arrested the decline and send the country on a growth trajectory.

Our public infrastructure has collapsed in a number of towns and even big cities such as Johannesburg whose suburban roads are filled with potholes.

The only thing that has thrived has been crime, with more people being emboldened to take the law into their hands, fully knowing that either there will be no consequences or, once they have been arrested and sentenced, powerful voices such as those of justice minister Ronald Lamola and transport minister Fikile Mbalula will campaign for a presidential pardon for them, as they did when Kanya Cekeshe was denied leave to appeal against his conviction for unleashing violence during the Fees Must Fall protests in 2015.

Others, such as Mcebo Dlamini, have known that, once convicted, they will be able to rely on some misguided by sympathetic voices to support their campaigns for their conviction to be expunged.

Ours has been a veritable criminals’ paradise, with no more than the usual, monotonous condemnations from our law-enforcement agencies, with police minister Bheki Cele leading the verbal denunciations. So far, our leadership has appeared to be far more concerned about the welfare of the criminals in our society, for whose presidential pardons they have clamoured, than they have been about the vast majority of us, law-abiding citizens.

That is why, given that context, the stance taken by the president on Sunday on the fight against the coronavirus has been a most welcome — but surprising — development. Here, at last, was Ramaphosa showing the type of leadership that we have long cried out for.

Given the spread of Covid-19 on our shores, Ramaphosa, who had moved from merely calling on South Africans not to panic, convened a cabinet meeting on Sunday and subsequently announced a raft of important measures intended to contain the spread of the virus and, in the process, avoid the type of situation that developed in European countries such as Italy and Spain following the advent of the disease in China and its spread from there.

As one listened to him on Sunday, one could not but be filled with pride. While some might quibble about some of the decisions taken by the cabinet and announced by the president on Sunday, the one thing which nobody can gainsay is this: finally, in his address to the nation on Sunday evening, Ramaphosa showed admirable leadership. He demonstrated that, during a national crisis, he and his cabinet can be relied upon to analyse whatever challenges correctly and to take the necessary corrective actions.

That, after all, is what leadership is about. It is not about endless consultations and the fear to take action because there is bound to be a group out there that will be critical and disapprove of the chosen course of action. Instead, it is about dispassionately diagnosing a problem, regardless of its nature, and having the courage to take decisive action to deal with or contain it. The president and his team showed such leadership on Sunday.

While health minister Zweli Mkhize — no doubt assisted by the interministerial team that he led — had done well over the past few weeks, visibly taking charge and communicating at least once daily to the nation on the state of the coronavirus and the country’s preparedness for it, he was still not the commander-in-chief. There continued to be doubt about the government’s preparedness and the extent to which it would be willing to take tough — and potentially unpopular — measures if the situation demanded.

While the mere fact that Ramaphosa convened a cabinet meeting on Sunday spoke loudly about the seriousness with which he approached the growing number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in the country, more impressive was his address to the nation that evening. It was clear, from his confident demeanour and delivery, that this was a man in charge, who was willing to do everything possible to protect the country during a time of crisis, as the constitution enjoins him to do.

That was visible and bold leadership on display, and it is important that we commend Ramaphosa for it — especially since a dominant and growing perception had development over the past few months that he was incapable of taking tough decisions.

Ramaphosa has often responded to the criticism of him by saying that he is not a dictator, but leads by building consensus and taking people along with him. As far as I can tell, nobody — certainly not me — is asking him to be a dictator. We would all rise up against him if he were to develop such tendencies. Instead, all we are asking for is for him to lead, to provide that critical leadership that our country is so desperately crying out for.

He passed that test on Sunday. Surely it is not too much to ask that he does the same more often, including in other facets of our lives, especially on the economy?

• Nyatsumba is CEO of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa.