Politics Notebook | Learn from Trump, Cyril

AUTOCRATS and dictators, even corrupt heads of state, sometimes have the potential to do things that benefit the broader community.

Donald Trump is indeed an unstable narcissist with a serious lack of democratic genes, but our own Cyril Ramaphosa could still learn something from him: The value of a transactional strategy – to get things done quickly and effectively, achieve results without ideological considerations, or endless consultations with “stakeholders”.

The opposite of the famed “long game”. Quid pro quo as a weapon for results.

I asked ChatGPT about this, and the answer was quite spot-on:

“Donald Trump’s leadership and political style are often described as ‘transactional' because he tends to focus on concrete, deal-oriented exchanges that prioritise immediate benefits over long-term strategies or ideological consistency. In a transactional approach, relationships and actions are primarily evaluated based on the tangible outcomes or ‘deals' they can deliver.”

Of course, the transactional strategy carries the risk of focusing on short-term solutions at the expense of sustainability, but often it’s appropriate, and I think Ramaphosa should sometimes borrow from Trump.

For example: Cyril picks up the phone and calls Flip Buys, telling him Solidarity must replace every pit toilet at schools with flush toilets within three months. In return, the government will be more inclined to consider Solidarity’s requests for farm safety and preserving Afrikaans.

The state itself has promised since 2007 that pit toilets would be replaced within a year or so, but this week we heard that tens of thousands of students still use them. If anyone can do it quickly, it’s Solidarity, which built the SolTech college and campus from the ground up in under a year.

Or: Call Emmerson Mnangagwa and say if Zimbabwe polices its own borders and ensures no one enters South Africa illegally, South Africa will allow those Zimbabweans to stay who are already here and working – the money they earn and send home is vital to Zimbabwe’s economy.

Or: Get the DA, VF+, Solidarity, teachers’ unions, and school governing bodies into a room and say if they take sufficient special measures to accommodate black children in neighbourhoods with Afrikaans schools, you’ll scrap clauses 4 and 5 from the Bela Bill.

And who do we thank? Rassie

Ah, but here’s a strong counterargument – proof that a purposeful plan, pursued over months and years, can achieve great success: Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks.

In 2016, the Springboks lost 57–15 to the All Blacks. I strongly considered switching to soccer and netball.

Three years later, they were world champions – and again in 2023. They won the 2024 Rugby Championship for southern hemisphere teams.

Today, they are ranked first in the world and are about to complete their first unbeaten year-end tour in the northern hemisphere since 2013.

Three of the four nominations for International Player of the Year are Boks: Cheslin Kolbe, Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit. The man northern hemisphere commentators call the best player in the world week after week, France’s Antoine Dupont, isn’t even on the list.

Many people – players and coaches – deserve credit for making the 2024 Springboks one of the best national teams ever. But the chief architect was Rassie Erasmus.

And all of this is the fruit of a strategic plan that Erasmus launched in 2018 with the help of colleagues, and consistently followed and refined.

Erasmus’s success, from which Ramaphosa could learn valuable lessons, includes ensuring your team is super fit, improving technique, constantly innovating game strategy, cultivating a depth of talent, and appointing the right people: Jacques Nienaber, Mzwandile Stick, Tony Brown, Daan Human.

Equally important is that Erasmus inspires and motivates his players, ensuring they know they play for their nation and each other – not just for the money or personal glory.

Maybe Cyril should appoint Rassie as his special advisor to get the GNU working optimally.

Do you look good on TV? You’re hired

Back to Donald Trump: He seems to have a preference for celebrities when you look at his cabinet nominations.

As The Atlantic wrote this week: “Donald Trump appears to experience the world through the glow of a television screen. He has long placed a premium on those who look the part in front of the camera.”

So, he wants to appoint Mehmet Oz, aka the TV doctor “Dr. Oz”, who falsely claims that red onions prevent ovarian cancer, as head of Medicare and Medicaid; WWE’s founder, Linda McMahon – who once herself dabbled in antics in the wrestling ring – as minister of education; Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth as minister of defence; a Kennedy (RFK Jr.) as minister of health.

And of course, Elon Musk of Twitter/SpaceX/Tesla fame as the national red-tape fighter, although in the past two weeks, it seems Elon is more of a co-president – he’s everywhere Trump is, and poor JD Vance has to lurk in the shadows.

The equivalent in the old days would’ve been PW Botha appointing Riaan Cruywagen as minister of police, Freek Robinson as minister of foreign affairs, Cliff Saunders as minister of defence, Kallie Knoetze as minister of education, Leon Schuster as minister of correctional services, and Mariëtta Kruger as minister of finance.

David Remnick writes in The New Yorker that this type of appointment should be seen as Trump’s shock troops:

“The nominations of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, and Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence are the residue of Trump’s resentments and his thirst for retribution.

“In Gaetz, who faces allegations (which he denies) of illegal drug use and having sex with an underage girl, Trump sees himself, a man wrongly judged, he insists, as liable for sexual abuse. In Kennedy, an anti-vax conspiracy theorist, he sees a vindication of his own suspicion of science and his wildly erratic handling of the COVID crisis.

“In Hegseth, who defends war criminals and lambastes ‘woke’ generals, he sees vengeance against the military establishmentarians who called him unfit. In Gabbard, who finds the good in foreign dictators, he sees someone who might shape the work of the intelligence agencies to help justify ending US support for Ukraine.

“In other words, Trump’s nominations – in their reckless endorsement of the dangerously unqualified – look like the most flagrant act of vindictive trolling since the rise of the internet. But it is trolling beyond mischief. All these appointees are meant to bolster Trump’s effort to lay waste to the officials and the institutions that he has come to despise or regard as threats to his power or person.

“These appointees are not intended to be his advisers. They are his shock troops.”

♦ VWB ♦

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