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.