RAMAPHOSA CONNED US,

The compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary, that gold standard in the correct usage of the queen’s language, might want to include a new word in their next edition: a “cyril” would be defined as a man utterly devoid of backbone. Alternatively, “cyrilness” would be offered as an antonym of courage. I think such a definition is long overdue. President Cyril Ramaphosa has quietly made a compelling case for it.

If there was any doubt about our president’s lack of cojones, the extraordinary kerfuffle over his meeting with Lindiwe Sisulu this week should put such concerns to bed. The meeting took place two weeks after the publication of Sisulu’s offending article. Why only then?

In the intervening period he sent out two junior ministers to throw potshots at her. It was only after that attempt hadn’t produced the desired effect that he plucked up the courage to meet and mollycoddle her.

Sisulu is the villain of the piece, but one is inclined to believe her version of what happened at that meeting. If she had indeed apologised, why should such a mea culpa be issued by the president or his sidekicks? Wasn’t it in his interest to see her grovelling in public?

Ramaphosa’s meeting this week should have been simple and to the point: retract and apologise, or else. That way, there wouldn’t have been this embarrassing “he said, she said” episode. But the president seems to like sitting on the fence. Now, one of his ministers has dared him, calling him a liar in public. How does he retain the respect of his cabinet?

If he’s reduced to a figure of fun, how does he hope to govern the country? But this is no laughing matter. A country with a feckless leader is as good as leaderless.

Some argue against Ramaphosa firing Sisulu because doing so would be playing into her hands; that she’d do to him what Jacob Zuma did to Thabo Mbeki. But the erosion of Ramaphosa’s reputation — which is what inaction will result in — is the outcome she wants. A Ramaphosa limping to the conference in December will be a less formidable adversary.

Ultimately Ramaphosa needs to do what’s in the best interest of the country, not what’s politically convenient. There can be nothing more humiliating than being publicly called a liar by a minion. Anyway, an irreconcilable relationship is sufficient grounds for her dismissal.

Sisulu insulted judges and the constitution, but the issue is no longer about her. The ball is now in Ramaphosa’s court. And his inaction always has a way of coming back to bite him. Tourism was supposed to be Sisulu’s purgatory. He chose to demote her, instead of firing her, after her perfunctory performance in previous portfolios. Now she’s caused a massive headache.

He followed the same script with Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, moving her sideways to speaker of parliament after she publicly contradicted him on the causes of the unrest in July. The first thing she did as speaker was to give live commentary as parliament was being reduced to ashes.

Arthur Fraser, removed as chief spook after revelations of impropriety at the Zondo commission, was parcelled off to correctional services where, amid an outcry, he summarily released a famous convict from jail on medical parole. That movie is yet to play itself out.

While the president was mud-wrestling with his tourism minister, another consequence of his timidity was on full display in all its ugliness. Julius Malema assembled his storm troopers to roam the streets, menacing businesses for employing foreign workers.

Malema is playing with fire, but that’s his modus operandi and so far it’s paid dividends. No fallout or consequences for him, only gains. The threats brought to mind the words of German theologian Martin Niemöller after the Holocaust: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist …”

It is foreigners today; who knows who it will be tomorrow? With angry mobs roaming around harassing innocent civilians, the country felt adrift and on autopilot, a jungle where no law seems to apply. It is the complete silence from anybody in authority — as if they too are afraid — that’s been so unnerving.

Malema is a politician and he’ll do whatever gives him easy results. His mobilisation of his goons and even Sisulu’s open defiance are part of a pattern of events propelled and encouraged by Ramaphosa’s passivity and indecisiveness.

The looting in July shocked all and sundry and changed the mood in the country. But six months later, nobody has been held to account. A bedraggled bunch of gangsters in army fatigues held ministers hostage a few months ago and the incident was almost laughed off. Thandi Modise, one of the hostages, seemed to suggest she enjoyed the experience.

Now parliament has been razed to the ground, and I’ll be amazed if anybody pays a price for this wicked and demoralising act. Such events, which are like a stake through the heart of the nation, never happened under Ramaphosa’s predecessors, not even Zuma. But lawlessness with a political purpose has been normalised under Ramaphosa because his enemies know they will get away with it.

Now Sisulu has invited him to fire her. Let’s see whether he has the cojones to take her up on her challenge.

Zuma was a crook; and he’s rightly reviled for it. Ramaphosa is a conman. He’s conned a swathe of the populace into believing he’d deliver them from the perfidies of his party. And yet he’s no different from the lot that went before — and he’s a wimp, to boot.