I really sympathise with President Cyril Ramaphosa about the position he finds himself in. What he inherited in both the government and the ANC is causing him sleeplessness. He never bargained for what he is unfolding.

In the ANC he is surrounded by hostile factions who still suffer from the 2017 December ANC conference hangover.

Some still believe they can turn back the hands of time and are busy plotting against Ramaphosa and his supporters. They are now celebrating the fall from grace of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, and still wish for more to fall on their swords.

There is no trust among those serving in the ANC's national executive committee, the provincial executive committees and those in similar structures at regional and branch levels.

Factions are entrenched and are working against each other instead of focusing on ANC victory in 2019 polls.

The major complication is that Ramaphosa can't choose who to lead with since leadership outcomes are determined by delegates. So, he is hamstrung and must learn to navigate through them.

In government he inherited compromised ministers and MPs who shook hands with the Guptas. Besides the known corrupters, it looks like under former president Jacob Zuma it was "everyone for himself" because the head was compromised.

These deployees are used to negotiating deals for themselves and their siblings. Bathabile Dlamini's statement on all having smallanyana skeletons comes to mind.

With the Zondo commission accepting hard drives as evidence on the Guptas leaks, I am sure many are shivering and know that it's a matter of days before they get exposed to the public.

Ramaphosa is a president at a crossroads and needs all our sympathy because he never bargained for this.

He must, from now on, vet all potential candidates before deploying them because most are contaminated and have their fair share of the dark past of state capture.

Moses Zola Manake

Roodekrans