Will Cyril of Nazareth redeem ANC?

It’s been a year of interesting media attention for President Cyril Ramaphosa.

- RICHARD CHEMALY

Even our most astute media hog of a politician in Gayton McKenzie could only conjure up halting the DA from using Liam Jacobs and then putting him to uhmmmm, err, use(?) in the Patriotic Alliance.

Ramaphosa is, on the other hand, so far on another level.

Here's a president who has, for the second time this year, elevated self-sabotage to an art form. In March, he lamented the state of Johannesburg, which was under his party rule.

More recently, Ramaphosa has likened successful municipalities to DA rule, a move that you will not find in the ANC political school handbook.

Clearly he doesn't fear his own party, which is probably an unwise position to take, given how the internal mechanism is very capable of removing his presidency, as has been done to both of his predecessors.

Whether it's prudent for Ramaphosa to make that announcement so publicly or to effectively confess that their competition is doing a competent job is not something I wish to speculate on.

Of course, it is refreshing that he would have this element of self-reflection, presumably to improve the state of service delivery.