Cyril wants cleanup day à la Rwanda
● President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday announced plans to emulate Rwandan President Paul Kagame and clean up SA, saying the country’s streets and towns are filthy.
Addressing hundreds of supporters at an ANC rally in Rustenburg, North West, Ramaphosa said he wants to follow the Rwandan model where once a month residents come together to clean the streets.
“In Rwanda, one day in every month … whether you are the president or premiers or mayors or a municipal managers … everybody wears overalls and cleans the town,” said Ramaphosa.
He said he would announce a national cleanup campaign so that SA’s beauty can be restored.
Kagame’s efforts to clean up Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, have gained him global accolades and are celebrated across the world.
He has vocal fans in finance minister Tito Mboweni and Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba.
Mboweni has repeatedly stated that SA has a lot to learn from Rwanda.
Mashaba even sent city officials to Kigali to learn from their opposite numbers how they keep their city clean.
“Our towns and cities are not clean. There is garbage and rubbish all over,” Ramaphosa said in his wide-ranging address.
He said he wants all South Africans to wear overalls and pick up litter across the country.
The president’s visit to the North West was his first time addressing ANC supporters in the province since being elected ANC president in December 2017.
The ANC leadership in the North West did not back Ramaphosa in the run-up to the Nasrec conference at which he was elected president.
Since then the provincial ANC leadership has been in turmoil. A task team headed by ANC national executive committee members has been appointed to take the province to the elections.
Ramaphosa spoke in Tswana and focused on job creation, saying he is doing everything in his power to secure investment so there can be jobs.
He lauded supporters for coming out and later told the media that he was confident that the ANC’s support in the province would grow.
Our towns and cities are not clean. There is rubbish all over