Mainstream Media's Sugarcoating of Ramaphosa's Legacy a 'Conspiracy of Lies'

Prof. Sipho Seepe

A widely distributed video clip shows President Cyril Ramaphosa leaving a social event wearing a medal. Ramaphosa laughingly quips. "I got a medal for doing nothing". No statement could have been more apposite.

Idiocy and falsehood have become the defining features of Ramaphosa’s presidency. In this theatre of absurdity, Ramaphosa could count on the support of mainstream media. In what could be described as a conspiracy of lies and desperate attempts to redeem what is left of Ramaphosa’s tattered legacy, news outlets have been falling over each other to portray Ramaphosa as the 2025 newsmaker of the year.

Far from it, the year 2025 is yet another wasted year.2025 started ominously with Ramaphosa being called out by his Rwandan counterpart, President Paul Kagame, for lying and distortions regarding the discussion they had held on the situation in the eastern DRC.

Writing in his official account on X, Kagame was unwavering. “What has been said about these conversations in the media by SA officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies. If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed."

Two months later, South Africa’s ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, was booted out of the US. This followed his unsavoury remarks about the US President Donald Trump. The presidency urged parties to refrain from giving Rasool a hero’s welcome, as this “may worsen already volatile diplomatic relationship.”

In addition, the presidency effectively stopped the Johannesburg Council from implementing its democratically endorsed plan to rename Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive in honour of the Palestinian activist, fearing that this might antagonise the USA. The breast-beating presidential chant that “we will not be bullied” had quickly fizzled out into oblivion.

This is vintage Ramaphosa. No backbone. While the mainstream media tries to project Ramaphosa in a positive light, his comrades in arms have since refused to be part of this conspiracy of lies. Former President Thabo Mbeki takes no prisoners in his assessment. Addressing mourners at the funeral of the late political activist and writer Titus Mafolo, Mbeki noted, "because the ANC is in problems, serious problems. South Africa is in serious problems…I don't know where South Africa will be tomorrow…. Where are we going? How are we going to solve all of these problems, whether it's crime or the economy, unemployment, this and that, and the other?”

Delivering the Gertrude Shope Memorial Lecture, Dr Naledi Pandor commented. “There is nothing worse in an organisation, or in a country, than a leader who has no solution… The people are looking to us to solve it”.

Pandor’s comment followed inane remarks by Ramaphosa at the so-called national dialogue. Ramaphosa had asked. “Why do so many people live in abject poverty… Why, after decades of democracy, are the prospects for a white child so much better than those of a black child? Why do women get paid less than men for the same work? Why, when we have a Bill of Rights, are LGBTQI+ people still discriminated against, stigmatised, and harassed? Why do clinics run out of medicine? Why do taps run dry?”

If the assessment by former activist and UNISA’s professor emeritus Raymond Suttner is to be believed, South Africans should resign themselves to periodic exposure to the instances of inanity that characterise the Ramaphosa presidency.

Suttner argued. “There is little in the record of Ramaphosa to suggest anything more than a self-indulgent, narcissistic attachment to the idea of being president, a presidency that has little content. What ideas, what vision, what ethics, if any, drive this man, and for that matter the organisation that he leads?” (The Daily Maverick, Op-ed 9/01/2021).

There is no known cure or prophylaxis for this form of idiocy. A few months later, President Ramaphosa found himself on the back foot in his dealings with US President Donald Trump. This was a self-inflicted injury.

To paraphrase Jonny Steinberg (TIME Magazine, May 22, 2025), Ramaphosa’s engagement with Trump was “reminiscent of the demeaning treatment Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received when he visited the White House. Only this time, Trump’s ambush was far more clearly choreographed… Ramaphosa’s performance was painful to watch. He was reduced to saying that he presided over a country that had lost control over itself and required assistance. And not just from any country, but from the United States, which made the humiliation all the more painful.”

The New York Times expressed the same sentiments in its article. “Trump Didn’t Want a Deal in the Oval Office. He wanted Humiliation."

For her part, Zukiswa Pikoli didn’t beat about the bush. “The whole engagement enraged me, not only as a South African but also as a black woman watching the all-too-familiar dance of slave and master playing out live on international television, forcing our President to have to beg and perform for his humanity. No amount of cool, calm, and factual interventions from his side stood a chance against the dismissive and irrational Trump onslaught,” she concludes.

My response, however, came from a sense of anger at the spectacle of white violence demonstrated by Trump, who could not be bothered to know the difference between African countries, never mind listen to the government delegation Ramaphosa led. Instead, he chose to listen to privileged white golfers and a fellow bullish businessman because they have more in common.

The above notwithstanding, it comes as no surprise that Ramaphosa and his acolytes have been at pains to convince themselves that the Washington shindig was a success. Evidently, the merchants of falsehood that once sold the country Ramaphoria and the New Dawn are at it again.

They can’t help themselves. The mainstream media’s attempt to reinvent Ramaphosa as a calculated distraction. It is an attempt to airbrush the Phala Phala scandal out of the public imagination. The under-reporting on Phala Phala is part of a deliberate plan to ensure that Ramaphosa is not held accountable.

The findings of the independent parliamentary panel presided over by the former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo are unmistakably brutal. The information prima facie disclosed that there was a deliberate decision to keep the investigation secret regarding an undisclosed sum of money in US dollars that was concealed in a leather sofa and later stolen at the President's Residence of Phala Phala.

There was no case number or docket regarding this crime. Evidence, prima facie, established that the President thrust himself into a situation where there was a conflict of interest between his official responsibilities as the Head of State and as a businessperson involved in cattle and game farming, and acted in a manner that was inconsistent with his office.

In all the circumstances the evidence prima facie, "establishes that the President may be guilty of a serious violation of the sections 96(2) misconduct involving a violation of section 96(2)(a) as alleged in charge 1; and committing a serious misconduct by violating the provisions of section 96(2)(b) read with section 83(b) of the Constitution.

The projection of Ramaphosa as one of the 2025 best performers by mainstream media is demonstrably dishonest. It is meant to divert attention from Ramaphosa's lack of accountability. The National Prosecution Authority's reluctance to follow up on the findings of the Independent Parliament Panel is a flagrant violation of its mandate.

The National Director of Public Prosecution, Shamila Batohi, just like President Ramaphosa, can no longer use the so-called state capture narrative to hide their dishonesty and utter incompetence. Finally, there is nothing to write home about regarding the G20.

The G20 was just another photo-taking opportunity. A weekend jamboree is not going to change South Africa and Africa’s misfortunes. There is nothing new about the lofty promises contained in the unenforceable G20 declaration. MKP's statement on the G20 is spot on to point out that “under Ramaphosa's watch, South Africa has not only stalled on key SDG targets, such as poverty reduction, quality education, decent work, sustainable infrastructure, and reducing inequality, but in many areas has regressed.”

It is simply the height of folly for Africa to expect to be rescued by the very governments that are responsible for its continued mayhem.

* Professor Sipho P. Seepe is a Higher Education and Strategy Consultant.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.