By Enyichukwu Enemanna
President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has called on citizens to be “messengers” and tell the ANC government’s good story instead of “badmouthing” the country.
The South African leader said China stands as a model for this form of patriotism, appealing to citizens to be like China
“Everyone must be a messenger. We must be like China. In China nearly everyone is a messenger — every Chinese is a messenger for their country, they never badmouth their own country. Never badmouth your country,” he said.
Ramaphosa spoke at the weekend at a stakeholder meeting in Durban which had in attendance religious, LGBTQ+ and small business groups.
While he welcomed their contributions, Ramaphosa expressed his disapproval of what he termed “severe lopsided” public criticism of the government.
“Here, some people have made it a sport to badmouth the country, to say all sorts of negative things and we say we need to be patriotic and acknowledge that we have challenges and problems.
“But at the same time [we] say that our love for this country is much more important than the negativity, so therefore we must be positive about South Africa. That is the only way this country can move forward,” he said.
He continued, “everyone must be beaming the message that does confirm as many people in our country as we have consulted over the manifest review process are saying ‘yes, there has been progress but we want more progress because much more work still needs to be done’”.
In his review of progress made to create a fairer South Africa, Ramaphosa is urging South Africans to appreciate the origins of inequality — the “damage done by misrule of colonialism and apartheid”.
Ramaphosa says the ANC has crafted policy aimed at transforming the economy “so that the economy can serve the people of South Africa”, because “the economy was structured around colonial rule and apartheid rule in a way where it was never designed to include the majority of our people. What we have sought to do for 30 years is to transfer that economy.
“Other themes have been to advance social transformation, to build safer communities, to fight corruption and to promote integrity. To strengthen governance and to build a capable state, unity and diversity, social cohesion for a better South Africa,” he said.
