Ramaphosa goes for gold in Joburg townships
President and party make Gauteng the focal point of the ANC’s May 8 election campaign
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday called on Diepsloot and Ivory Park residents in Johannesburg to help the ANC block political parties who wanted to prevent it from governing Gauteng, the country’s economic hub.
Ramaphosa, flanked by ANC provincial chairperson David Makhura, visited the two townships as part of the ongoing battle for control of Gauteng before the May 8 elections.
The party has made Gauteng its focal point as it drums up electoral support, after several polls have indicated that it could lose control of the province if it continues to shed votes.
Diepsloot residents called on Ramaphosa and his government to address crime and joblessness in the area, which is one of the country’s poorest, most crime-ridden and densely populated townships.
“The community will be able to give us a decisive majority so that we can have a decisive victory. They are raising issues about matters that we are working on. We are going to embark on various major campaigns to make sure that we get crime in the area (under control),” Ramaphosa said.
He also visited Ivory Park, near Midrand, where he reiterated his call for voters to reject parties who were planning to dislodge it from the province.
“We hear there are other parties who are talking, who say they want to take control of Gauteng. They say they want to take Gauteng away from the ANC.
“On the 8th of May you must wake up early and vote ANC so that we can win with an overwhelming victory. You must make sure that this province returns to the ANC,” Ramaphosa said.
He also defended himself and the ANC from claims that they were partly responsible for the latest outbreaks of xenophobic attacks in the country.
On Monday, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu met ambassadors of several countries after a spate of alleged xenophobic violence in KwaZulu-Natal last week.
The ambassadors and organisations representing foreign nationals have accused political leaders of making reckless statements to drum up votes.
While Ramaphosa and the ANC have emphasised that foreign nationals were welcome in the country if they came legally, he said the party had no negative sentiments against people from other nations.
“In our manifesto, we said we must manage and regularise it (immigration) properly. We want proper order so that everybody, including ourselves as South Africans, is properly documented,” Ramaphosa said.
He said he also did not believe in the branding of South Africans as xenophobic.
“Our people are living side by side with people from other nations, and we are very pleased with that.
“There is peace and harmony in living together, and where this thing has erupted, it erupted because of criminal elements, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, where there was a squabble between two people and then the conflict started spreading and spread by people with criminal intent.”