Brutus Malada is a political strategist and a research consultant. He previously served as a specialist writer and communications adviser for the rector of the University of the Western Cape. He has worked in various think tanks, including the Human Sciences Research Council and the Centre for Politics and Research. He was a member of the Midrand Group - a loose association of intellectuals in Johannesburg.

The President has been a serious disappointment as a president. Yet he had the social and political capital to reform South Africa. He has squandered all the public confidence that he enjoyed when he ascended to the high office.

One question that troubles the minds of ambitious presidents is how will I be remembered when my term comes to an end? Hence most presidents identify two or three areas of priority and focus much of their attention on them. That is how a legacy is constructed.

However, a president without a plan can toil for a term or two, hopping from crisis to crisis, and end up with nothing to show in the form of a legacy. Such is the fate awaiting Cyril Ramaphosa.

When it was clear that Thabo Mbeki was poised to...