President Cyril Ramaphosa. Photo: Papi Morake/Gallo
- President Cyril Ramaphosa ran around Philippi, Hanover Park and Khayelitsha in Cape Town on Saturday.
- He was in the ANC’s Letsema campaign to renew the party in the province.
- He drove through several load drop zones where traffic was severely backed up.
President Cyril Ramaphosa raced through Cape Town on Saturday morning paying punctual visits to the people living around Philippi’s rubbish and sewage littered streets.
His convoy easily cut through unloading traffic as police temporarily cordoned off intersections to let him through.
The first stop was the Junxion Mall cargo shed, where shoppers walked in the dark.
In the same area, in a field near a canal, people crowded around the president as he began his speech. A man carrying a cardboard with the words “Ramaphosa Corruption” came to the front shouting: “Free speech, free speech.”
Wiping sweat from his face in the scorching heat as the people chanted greetings to the main group, Ramaphosa stepped forward to deliver a short speech.
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At the top of his agenda was gender violence, housing shortages, unemployment, gangsterism and “tsotsis”.
He called a men’s summit to meet and find out why some abuse and kill women.”[so that] we can talk to each other and get to the bottom of what makes men inclined to have women,” she said.
He repeated this message at a formal luncheon in Hanover Park, leaving the burden behind.
Addressing the issue, he said Eskom warned years ago that they needed money to repair, build and maintain the national power grid.
“Now it’s costing us twice as much,” he said as power was restored at Voorspoed primary school.
He did not stay to enjoy the curry that with its strong aroma impregnated the main hall of the school.
The Pennsylvania Minstrel Troupe criticized grasslands how did it go. He only stopped briefly to pose for selfies with the crowd of people gathered to meet him.
At the OR Tambo Community Hall in Khayelitsha, Ramaphosa danced onstage as the ANC Women’s League sang jubilantly for him.
This was in stark contrast to the sewer-filled streets it had run through, where shacks were built on the sidewalks inches from damaged roads.
Ramaphosa is in the ANC’s Letsema campaign to renew the party in the province.
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“Next time, the ANC will be in control of this province,” Ramaphosa said of his hopes for the upcoming elections.
As he spoke in Khayelitsha, the electricity was turned back on to loud cheering.
He urged people to prepare for the upcoming ANC national conference, where around 3,500 branches will elect new leaders.
He blamed previous poor election results in the Western Cape on branches choosing “fresh air”, but said the organization has worked hard this time in the province.
“The ANC cannot continue to lose elections in the Western Cape,” Ramaphosa said.
