Perhaps President Cyril Ramaphosa has deserved being labelled a wuss, given the number of times he has hesitated to take decisive action even in instances where he was clearly being undermined by his own subordinates.

But one cannot think of any other president — among the ones we have had so far as a democracy — who would have been so bold as to use the state of the nation address (Sona) to make statements that are not popular with his party’s main constituencies in a year when he is up for re-election...