A fortnight ago President Cyril Ramaphosa was still widely dismissed as out of touch and ineffectual, barely competent to tie his own shoelaces. After last week’s Brics summit in Sandton, he has emerged from his dowdy chrysalis as the newly-crowned master of the universe.
There have been gushing tributes from Russia’s Vladimir Putin – Ramaphosa showed “unique diplomatic mastery” in negotiating the expansion of Brics – as well as I-told-you-so’s from many who, five years ago, were rapturous about CR’s “new
