Mkhwanazi’s allegations delivered blow to anti-corruption stance

IN RETROSPECT, KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's corruption revelations did not just expose rot — they detonated the last remaining facade of President Ramaphosa's failing anti-corruption project.

- SISEKO MAPOSA

In fact, the systemic rot has flourished under his watch; the very leader who promised a “new dawn” - the irony.

His reform project now appears either dangerously naïve or deliberately hollow, as evidenced by our worsening Global Corruption Perceptions Index (dropped by 3 points since 2019).

How does an “anti-corruption president” enable corruption's entrenchment? The answer may lie in some uncomfortable truths that we must unpack.

It may now seem like ancient history, but once upon a time Ramaphosa was hailed as the standard-bearer of ethical governance.

His path to power was paved with promises of 'new dawn' renewal - a calculated repudiation of the Zuma-era rot that had crippled both party and state. A masterful political narrative, yes.

But as time would tell, not entirely sincere.

Ramaphosa’s ANC ushered in the ‘step-aside rule,’ a shrewd mechanism that conveniently sidelined political rivals. For a while, the chessboard tilted his way - until the #CR17 campaign, his golden ladder to power, began to crack.