Ramaphosa woos voters on Malema’s home turf
Jobs, tackling graft top list, he tells crowd
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa took the ANC’s campaign trail to EFF leader Julius Malema’s backyard yesterday, as he canvassed in his hometown of Seshego, Polokwane.
This comes as political parties continue to try to woo voters to back them when the country heads for the general elections in less than a month from now.
Since the 2014 general elections when it first contested for power, the EFF has been directly eating into the ANC stronghold in the province, including Polokwane, where it secured 28% in the 2016 local elections, while the ANC fell from 79% to 57%.
Flanked by ANC provincial chairperson Premier Stan Mathabatha and regional leaders, Ramaphosa spent the whole day addressing a number of community meetings in Seshego.
Addressing hundreds of ANC supporters donning party regalia in Zone 1 – from where Malema hails – Ramaphosa called on Seshego residents to reject smaller parties that had ambitions to remove the ANC.
“We must back the ANC government to retain control of the province and of the country. There must be no smaller, little parties that must think they can take over government,” Ramaphosa said.
“There are small parties that are going around claiming that they are the government in waiting. There is no government in waiting here. It is only the ANC that is waiting. South Africans in their numbers – and these small parties will see – are saying the ANC will return to power with an increased majority,” he added.
He said the ANC was still the only party with a plan and the experience to take the country forward.
“Yes, there have been mistakes. We did make some mistakes on the way. But we have worked for the nation and many people can see that the ANC has made the difference. If you don’t see that, you are blind and if you don’t hear, you are deaf,” Ramaphosa said.
He said his campaign trail was a mimic of the listening tour embarked on by former president Nelson Mandela, who went on a roadshow throughout the country to understand people’s problems before he took over in 1994.
He said while jobs would be top of the list of what the ANC would push to deliver after retaining power under his leadership, he would also push for consequences for those who looted public resources.
“Most of the things that people are saying we must fix, we are fixing, including governance at national level and at provincial and local government level,” he said.
“We want those who have been appointed to work for the public to do so and not work for themselves and their family members. They must be trustworthy.
“The thieves, we are after them. They will end up where they deserve, with orange overalls,” Ramaphosa said.
He said people were seeing that the ANC under his leadership was fixing the country and they wanted to give it another chance.
Malema and the EFF could not be reached for comment.