[imagesource: Flickr / GovernmentZA]

According to the Section 89 independent panel report, President Cyril Ramaphosa has an impeachment case to answer over serious violations of the Constitution linked to Phala Phala and a certain couch.

While it makes for great memes, it’s also left South Africans looking at what and who comes next if Ramaphosa bows out or is booted out of the ANC leadership position.

Suffice it to say, it’s not exactly a stellar line-up of squeaky-clean would-be leaders waiting to step into the leadership void.

Or, to put it bluntly, as Zapiro did in his cartoon published yesterday on The Daily Maverick, it’s really come to “better the devil you know”:

Paul Mashatile looks the most likely to ascend to power if (or when) Ramaphosa topples. His past links to the so-called Alex Mafia have been well documented and you’ll find a great breakdown of who he is here.

Zweli Mkhize’s Digital Vibes plundering hasn’t stopped him from being welcomed back into the ANC’s top echelons and current vice president David Mabuza’s fingers have been in the cookie jar for years.

Before she was Minister of Tourism, Lindiwe Sisulu was Minister of Human settlements, water and sanitation and corruption was rife in her department.

What a lovely bunch to pick from. The truth is, if you’re embedded in the ANC party structures, your hands are dirty. Writing for News24, Pieter du Toit agrees:

The point is this: it doesn’t matter whether it is Ramaphosa who is president, or his deputy David Mabuza, or even anyone on the top 10 nomination list for the ANC leadership (like Mrs Bosasa Braaipack Nomvula Mokonyane): the ANC is a corrupted, toxic and incapable organisation. The ANC has now become the enemy of the people.

Ramaphosa, who was nominally clean until last week, sits atop a structure that exists purely in service of itself, devoid of any larger civic responsibility or awareness, and staffed by crooks and criminals, bent on repurposing the state in service of patronage politics.

These wannabe leaders aren’t competing so that they can enact any sort of policy reform or better serve the people of this country.

They are competing for access to our state resources for personal gain, and to ensure they squash anything that could lead to their cronies and themselves being held accountable for the looting and squandering.

President Ramaphosa has approached the Constitutional Court to set aside the report that found he had a case to answer for impeachment.

In a statement, he said the panel had “misconceived its mandate, misjudged the information placed before it and misinterpreted” the charges against him.

All in all, we’re left hoping a man who has fallen woefully short of transforming his rotten party clings to power.

[sources:dailymav&news24]