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Does Ramaphosa want SA to become Zimbabwe?
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent visit to Harare raised eyebrows for many South Africans — and alarm bells. During his speech at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show on the 29th of last month, he praised Zimbabwe’s disastrous land reform policies under President Robert Mugabe.
In 2000, Robert Mugabe shocked the global community by radically revising Zimbabwe’s land ownership laws, compelling by force thousands of white Zimbabwean farmers to relinquish their farms and driving many to flee Zimbabwe.
It was astonishing to hear South Africa’s head of state commend land reform policies that devastated Zimbabwe’s economy and displaced millions. As BusinessTech aptly put it, the President scored an own goal.
Let’s be clear: Zimbabwe’s land reform programme in the early 2000s was a disaster. The economy collapsed. Hyperinflation reached staggering levels, impoverishing Zimbabweans. Millions fled the country — many illegally crossing into South Africa. The crisis affected South Africa directly.
It wasn’t just whites who fled Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s black middle class — the skilled, educated professionals — also fled the country. These were people who had built stable lives in Zimbabwe, only to see their futures destroyed by reckless policies of Robert Mugabe.
Why would our President praise Mugabe’s destructive legacy? What message does this send to the world? What message is he sending to investors seeking certainty in South Africa’s economic direction? Is he signaling that South Africa might follow Zimbabwe’s path — embracing the same racially charged, economically ruinous land policies?
Leadership is not just about what you do — it’s about what you say and how you position your country on the global stage as President. Investors, both local and international, need to fully understand that South Africa rejects Mugabe’s policies that collapsed Zimbabwe. That’s the reassurance President Ramaphosa should have offered. Instead, he chose to romanticize ruin. Disgraceful! I don’t know who advised President Ramaphosa to make those remarks in Harare.
We cannot replicate Mugabe’s policies here. South Africa needs stability, growth, and safety. We want an economy where every citizen — regardless of race, religion, or gender — can participate productively.
South Africa faces enormous challenges: staggering unemployment, high crime, collapsing infrastructure, and a failing education. In Johannesburg, many communities are struggling with basic water supply. These are the issues that demand our attention in South Africa — not ideological nostalgia for failed Zimbabwean policies.
In my book Lessons from Past Heroes, I explore how political leaders often ignore historical facts. It’s a global trend — a common denominator among politicians who prioritize power over honesty and truth. Why do they do it? Because ideology and the desire to control people trump rationality. For many politicians, power comes first — even if it means rewriting history.
In functional democracies, voters have the power to hold their leaders accountable. South Africa is a democracy. And it’s up to South Africans to ensure that those who promote Zimbabwe-style land grabs are removed from office or not voted into power. In the case of South Africa, the Zimbabwe-style policies can only take root if voters allow it.
Nations rise and fall based on the decisions of their leaders. Good governance — including things like rejection of Zimbabwe’s land reform model — is a political choice. If South Africans choose to become Zimbabwe, they will become Zimbabwe.
As economist Thomas Sowell writes in Economic Facts and Fallacies, real change comes from within nations. No foreign leader or institution can impose lasting progress on a nation. Sowell is right.
In Economic Facts and Fallacies, Thomas Sowell makes a striking observation: it is rare to find poor countries that are well governed. Most are plagued by misgovernance.
I found Sowell’s assertion entirely accurate. Just look at Africa — a continent rich in resources, yet burdened by corruption, weak institutions, and poor leadership. The result? Africa remains the poorest continent in the world by standard of living.
Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe had a choice: pursue investor-friendly, market-based reforms or embrace violent land seizures. Tragically, it chose the latter with dire consequences.
Some South Africans have defended President Ramaphosa’s Harare remarks, suggesting he was merely being diplomatic. But diplomacy does not require endorsing failed policies. There are many positive things he could have said about Zimbabwe — its resilience, its potential, its people — without praising a land reform programme that destroyed livelihoods and undermined the rule of law.
In recent years, Zimbabwean leaders acknowledged that Mugabe’s policies were a travesty, severely damaging the nation’s social and economic fabric.
In 2020, under President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s leadership, Zimbabwe signed the Global Compensation Agreement (GCA), committing to pay US$3.5 billion in compensation to approximately 4,000 dispossessed white farmers.
The compensation process has begun, covering infrastructure and improvements but not the land itself.
The compensation initiative is part of Zimbabwe’s broader strategy to rebuild its economy, restore investor confidence, and improve relations with Western nations. It also aligns with constitutional obligations and supports efforts to resolve the country’s foreign debt.
Let’s be honest: it is bad policy, not colonialism or apartheid, that keeps Africa poor. Colonialism and apartheid are long gone. For decades now, African nations have been governed by black leaders. If these black leaders choose violence, expropriation, and economic sabotage, they must take responsibility. African nations are sovereign nations, endowed with vast mineral wealth and human potential. But minerals alone won’t lift Africa out of poverty. Without sound governance and robust investment, African nations remain buried assets. Only Africans though — through their leaders and institutions — can unlock Africa’s potential.
As Africa’s population surges in the coming decades, opportunities abound. But those opportunities will only be realized if African policymakers adopt rational, investor-friendly policies that promote growth, stability, and inclusion, not Zimbabwe’s reckless policies.
I hope President Ramaphosa reads this column — and reflects on its message. PM
This article was first published on Politicsweb.co.za. Buy Phumlani’s book Lessons from Past Heroes here, and subscribe to his YouTube channel here.
© PHUMLANI M. MAJOZI