Johannesburg – Misplacing a valuable item can be nerve-wracking.
A smartphone, car keys, spectacles.
I should know. I’ve sometimes looked for my specs while they are perched on my nose bridge.
Those moments of panic as you turn the house upside down are panic-inducing.
However, for most of us ordinary folk, we have the option to either bite our nails and pull our hair out or even kick the family dog in frustration.
However, if you are a president of a country, you have the executive powers to vent your frustration.
When someone hid the iPad from President Cyril Ramaphosa recently, there was calm before the storm.
“Can I have my iPad please? So, they stole it,” said the real commander-in-chief to the nation on our television screens.
We laughed at his masked face while his aides asked him to sit down while they looked for his gadget.
The storm came this week when the president unleashed his wrath on the country.
First, he locked down the country to alert level four and slammed the taverns shut.
Then he sent his predecessor, Gedleyihlekisa Zuma packing to jail and sent his deputy, DD Mabuza on leave to Russia.
That’s power.
Okay, Zuma’s looming incarceration has nothing to do with a misplaced iPad, but more to do with showing the Constitutional Court the middle finger.
Many people have made the mistake of perceiving Ramaphosa as a weakling.
His measured tones when he speaks are seen as a lack of a spine. This is someone who was said to have been favoured by Nelson Mandela to succeed him at the Union Buildings in the 90s.
When he was elbowed aside by the ANC honchos, he sulked and built a multi-billion empire while he bided his time.
For years people begged him to contest for the presidency. “Run, Cyril, run!” they begged.
Three years ago, he finally ascended to the throne. Thuma Mina, he said. Unfortunately, his predecessor had other ideas and would not slither out of the way after he was recalled. Unlike former president Thabo Mbeki when he was recalled, Zuma wouldn’t disappear to the sunset.
His motley coterie of supporters rallied to make Ramaphosa’s tenure unbearable, calling themselves the Radical Economic Transformation (RET).
As Zuma prepares to hand himself to his jailers, the RET forces are beating the war drums, stationed at his rural compound of Nkandla to “protect” him from being arrested.
The MKMVA, in its quasi-military fatigues, has been slaughtering and feasting on Zuma’s cattle since February when a warrant for his arrest was issued.
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