On Thursday President Cyril Ramaphosa finally sounded like a leader who had located the switch marked authority.
For once, the presidency did not murmur – it declared. The deployment of the SANDF into the ganglands of the Western Cape and Gauteng is necessary. Organised crime has metastasised into a parallel state.
The language embraced the urgency of fear. Children in the crossfire. Communities under siege. Whether the troops restore order remains to be seen. But at last, the president spoke like a commander-in-chief.
