South Africa’s president promises big results—eventually
Oct 19th 2019SOUTH AFRICANS are growing impatient with Cyril Ramaphosa, the former union boss, anti-apartheid activist and tycoon who is now their president. In his 20 months in office, no one has been prosecuted for the looting of the state that took place under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. In an interview with The Economist in London on October 13th, Mr Ramaphosa gave a message to his critics. And it involves a rip-roaring second-world-war film.In “Force 10 from Navarone”, explains Mr Ramaphosa, British commandos try to blow up a dam so that the water will sweep away a bridge that the Nazis want to use. When the explosives go off, nothing happens. The commandos are furious. “It didn’t work!” they say. But the explosives expert tells them to wait. The dam is damaged and will soon collapse, he says. Once the fuse has been lit, there is no going back.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address