President Cyril Ramaphosa.
PHOTO: Deaan Vivier, Gallo Images/Netwerk24
- President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared unfazed by the Phala Phala controversy as he toured Khayelitsha, Philippi and Hanover Park for the ANC’s “Letsema” renewal campaign.
- He was treated like a celebrity and seemed to be among friends, even as the pressure on his leadership and the Phala Phala controversy has been mounting.
- Ramaphosa said the Phala Phala report will be taken up at the ANC’s elective conference next week and people should wait for it to arrive.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared unfazed by the Phala Phala controversy when he visited Philippi, Khayelitsha and Hanover Park on Saturday. Ramaphosa appeared in his capacity as ANC chairman just a week before the major party’s crucial election conference.
He was treated like a celebrity at every arrival and departure, and the addition of Police Minister Bheki Cele, having attended the funeral of murdered policeman Ashwin Pedro, brought even more people to the stage to shake hands with the duo.
The acoustics of the OR Tambo community sports hall in Khayelitsha amplified the songs of fight and praise in the packed auditorium. Ramaphosa seemed to be among friends, at least for the day.
Earlier, the SABC managed to ask him questions about the Phala Phala controversy. When a bodyguard tried to push him, Ramaphosa stopped the bodyguard and responded.
He reiterated that the ANC will deal with the controversy when it meets en masse next week to vote for its new officials, with Ramaphosa hoping for a second term at the helm.
“So you guys are really excited about this topic,” he said on the sidelines of his visit to Philippi.
In his soothing voice, he said:
Please relax. Really, relax; no problem, no crisis. Relax and come listen to the political report. I invite you to do that.
On Tuesday, the National Assembly will meet at Cape Town City Hall to consider and decide whether to adopt the Section 89 panel’s report on Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala dealings.
The City Council was elected after the National Assembly building burned down in January.
The ANC in the Western Cape has been limping along for years, trying to rebuild after the blow of being ousted by the DA as a majority in the provincial government and the coveted Cape Town council.
The party’s provincial executive committee was dissolved in 2019 after a disorderly period, and an interim committee headed by Lerumo Kalaka has been trying to stabilize the party there and fix the branches.
With 267 branches, it is still 17 branches short of reaching the 70% threshold required to hold a provincial conference, so it will try to hold its conference next year.
However, Ramaphosa was told on Saturday that he had the support of the ANC in the Western Cape, and in turn told his audience that the party’s branches are looking much better thanks to the ANC’s renewal campaign.
T-shirts were not handed out as usual, but the old ones were dusted off and beaded embellishments in ANC colors were seen.
READ | Parliament vote on Ramaphosa’s ouster to take place at Cape Town City Hall
Ramaphosa’s bodyguards formed a human chain as he made his way to his car with children captivated by the activity on the damaged and rubbish-strewn roads. Port-a-loos leaned precariously close to the roads as the presidential convoy sped past shacks spilling onto the sidewalks.
Huge traffic jams caused by reduced load and robot batteries not having time to recharge between power outages made the suburbs he was traveling through even more congested.
As the cargo diversion followed him around, he pondered on how he had gotten so bad.
“You can’t even see the food you’re going to be served,” he told the lunch gathering in the dark corridor of Voorspoed Primary School in Athlone at one of his stops.
“Eskom has been the subject of a number of challenges over a number of years. One of them is that Eskom was denied… well, let me put it this way… told not to build power plants,” he said. he told the guests.
“…Later he realized that we actually need power plants, and we woke up too late and started building mega power plants like Medupi and Kusile.”
He said Eskom was heavily reliant on OEMs that were not being properly managed, tested and supervised, and design flaws and budget overruns began to trickle down.
“And now we’ve paid twice, more than twice the money we should have paid for our new power plants, and the old ones have aged faster and maintenance programs have stopped.”
READ | Highly charged atmosphere: ANC leaders in heated NEC debate over future of Eskom’s De Ruyter
He said that with the new board, Eskom will be restructured to better manage its debt and management is being directly monitored.
“Things are moving. People never used to be arrested, even at the Eskom level, when they had done bad things. Now, people are being arrested.”
“We have drawn a line to say no,” the president said.
