The coronavirus pandemic has been described as a litmus test for President Cyril Ramaphosa. His leadership has already been a point of discussion since the outbreak of the lethal virus. The President’s political history shows him as a consultative leader who negotiates widely before making a decision.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership will be under scrutiny throughout the coronavirus days. He’s faced criticism of being an indecisive leader by some, while others have gone as far as calling him weak and not having a backbone.
But now one political analyst believes Ramaphosa has been decisive in closing borders and instituting a national shutdown.
Political Analyst from the University of Johannesburg, Professor Mcedisi Ndletyana, has applauded the decisive steps by President.
“I would have hoped the President would have led like this for the past two years and not wait for a catastrophe of this kind to provide the stern and decisive leadership hopefully this is something he will continue into the future because as soon as this thing passes the problems are going to be even more. The economy, who knows in a month who two unemployment is going to be at 30%, the growth rate might be revised even further down, so I hope this boldness and decisiveness will stay with us and if it stays this President could do very well.”
Professor Ndletyana says the President’s leadership and negotiation style has been fruitful for the nation.
“This is one of those instances when consultations because when you shut down the economy you involve a whole lot of people, business, labour and services as well, especially at a crisis like this, government alone cannot do this, the government doesn’t have money, so you have a business that might run out of money and business and retrenchments might be around the corner.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision on the lockdown is not for people to go on holiday or joy rides across the country.
“If people think that President Ramaphosa is giving them a free holiday of three weeks and they go around galavanting, they must know that we going to pay a price for that right now the level of infection are still very very small.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership is being tested on all fronts. Ramaphosa has been criticized on many occasions of not being decisive and consulting too much but this time around he has proven to be bold and decisive particularly when the basic existence of Human Kind is being threatened by the coronavirus.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announces a lockdown from Thursday 26 March to Thursday, 16 April:
