South Africa: Sharp Read | the Real Ramaphosa Remains Obscured

opinion

A new book on the SA and ANC president is useful in some respects, but it covers too short a period of his reign and sheds almost no light on the internal workings of the man himself.

The cover image of Susan Booysen's latest volume on the ANC, Precarious Power: Compliance and Discontent under Ramaphosa's ANC, is more telling than she might realise. It shows Cyril Ramaphosa vanishing into a dense, midnight-blue backdrop, almost invisible except for the cusp of his upper lip, the pouches below his eyes and his bald spot. The obscured face reveals almost nothing about the man and what drives him. And that is one's main quarrel with Precarious Power.

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