Anti-Cyril Ramaphosa sentiments on social media seem to have escalated dramatically following revelations of who funded his CR17 campaign.
The Sunday Independent published details of some of CR17 campaign funders over the weekend.
Among those identified were billionaire businessman Nicky Oppenheimer’s family, former Absa CEO Maria Ramos, and Goldman Sachs Southern African chief executive Colin Coleman, among others.
The paper further reported that some donations were made after the 2017 African National Congress (ANC) national conference in Nasrec.
‘Capture’
For some South Africans on social media, these donations amounted to a “capture” of the president.
They expressed their sentiments through the #RamaphosaMustFall hashtag.
Leading the charge was Vuyo Zungula, President of the African Transformation Movement (ATM).
Ramaphosa is not going to change anything in this country; he is here to maintain the status quo. I wish they can stop blackmailing us about Jobs & Economy when we raise relevant questions.
Twitter user Meshack Mafadza
Ramaphosa’s defence
However, some came to the defence of Ramaphosa, arguing that his only sin was to accept donations from private sources as opposed to “looting from the state.”
I’m very disappointed in Ramaphosa – how dare he accept donations from Big Business like most presidential hopefuls around the world do.
He was supposed to loot the state and use those funds like a principled South African President.
@green_terro
Our president is not corrupt. He did not steal public money. We stand by him.
Teboho Motasi
‘Lost focus’
Some commenters felt that politics in South Africa has lost focus on the real issues such as the economy.
S.A’s politics are odd. Rather than focusing in our struggling economy and unemployment, they focus on fighting each other.
More surprising is that those who claim to be socialist are busy fighting one man that the people need him to deliver.
@KSathekgeJNR
It would be nice, if we woke up to all political parties putting their heads together to bring realistic changes to the crisis the country is currently facing but instead you are all too concerned about who funds what and not doing what we sent you to do.
@gugley
The debate is likely to drag on for quite some time, especially as Ramaphosa’s court challenge against Public Protector’s report on CR17 campaign gets underway soon.