Cyril laments cash for votes
“Money being offered for votes”
ANC presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa has for the first time confirmed he will accept nomination to lead the ANC.
“I will sign to be the servant of the people. I will not be signing to go and serve my own interest and line my pockets.
“We are going to this conference because we want to rebuild. On this one, we are serious because the ANC has been damaged.”
Ramaphosa was addressing elderly people and the Gauteng ANC Veteran’s League in Soweto yesterday, where he also dropped a bombshell, revealing that delegates were being offered money to vote in a particular way at next weekend party’s national elective conference.
“We have heard that there are people going around offering people money to vote in a particular way. That is corruption,” he said.
Ramaphosa pleaded with delegates to carry out the mandate of branches at the conference.
“Go and carry out the mandate of the branches. You must be guided by your conscience which is supported by your branch,” he said.
“We want people to vote for the truth and for the unity of the ANC.”
Ramaphosa had kept people waiting for more than three hours at a thanksgiving at the Evangelical Presbyterian church in Chiawelo, Soweto, where he grew up.
The ANC elective conference starts next weekend where a new party president will be elected to succeed President Jacob Zuma.
The position is being contested. The frontrunners for the president position are Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Yesterday in Soweto, a section of the crowd booed ANC councillor Meisie Maluleke when she apologised for starting late.
However, when Ramaphosa, who was flanked by his wife, Tshepo Motsepe, entered the church the crowd went wild and ululated. They shouted: “Our president.”
Maluleke said Ramaphosa would be the next ANC leader. “You are president from today.”
ANC Veterans League Gauteng chairwoman Nomatyala Jafta said “We are going with Cyril.”
Ramaphosa started his speech by apologising for arriving late, saying he had to attend a third science forum hosted by the Science and Technology Department in Pretoria in the morning.
He said that everyone was looking up to the ANC national elective conference.
“I am sure everybody seated here wants the conference to be a well-run conference.”
Ramaphosa said even Zuma wanted the conference to go well. “That’s why he had a last supper with us [candidates].”
The elderly people were given T-shirts branded “CR17” in support of Ramaphosa’s bid. However, others wore T-shirts bearing the face of Zuma.