South Africa’s president promises big results—eventually

SOUTH 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.

For Mr Ramaphosa that fuse is the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa, one of several institutions he has sought to revive after their evisceration by Mr Zuma. The spectacular results people want may take time, but the process Mr Ramaphosa has set in motion “is irrevocable”, he says. Arrests will happen.

A big bang is also what is needed in the economy. It has a long list of structural problems. These include a lack of competition, a low...

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