President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Cape Town on Saturday to campaign ahead of the party’s elective conference. Picture: LEON LESTRADE/African News Agency (ANA)
Promises of jobs, sports fields, houses, and even a men’s dialogue were made by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa during a last-ditch campaign drive ahead of the 55th ANC elective conference.
Ramaphosa, who will try to retain his position as ANC president at Nasrec next weekend, visited the Western Cape as part of the party’s Letsema programme and explained that all hands were on deck to resolve the county's electricity crisis.
In the meantime, the Section 89 Independent Panel’s report into Ramaphosa’s culpability in the Phala Phala farm saga continues to hang over his head.
This, after the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) resolved that the integrity commission’s report on the matter would be tabled at conference – it is unclear if this will happen before or after new leadership is elected.
Before the clean-up of a canal in Philippi, Ramaphosa went on a walkabout at the Junxion Mall which was experiencing load shedding at the time. Some of the shops were even closed due to the blackout.
According to Ramaphosa, there have been incidents where Eskom employees tampered with wires, causing units to break.
"It's a combination of all these things, and fortunately for the very first time, people are getting arrested for fraud, corruption, and tampering with the system," Ramaphosa said.
He said Eskom was an enormous organisation, and the government was dealing with problems from all sides.
"I'm going to meet with ministers to discuss what additional interventions we can make. I made an announcement a few months ago on interventions for maintenance for increasing generation, and all those things are under way, but it's a process.
"I want South Africans to understand that we have got our hands on deck, we are not sleeping on the job, and Eskom keeps me awake most of the time, it is an overarching problem for all of us in government, and this is at the top of my list," Ramaphosa said.
The crowds at the shopping centre screamed when they saw Ramaphosa, with some asking when the R350 social relief grants would return.
He told residents in Philippi during a mini-rally that a men’s dialogue could help curb gender-based violence cases in the area.
The president said he had been told that universities where male students had spoken among themselves about GBV had reduced the number of incidents.
"We must have a men’s dialogue and speak among ourselves as men about why men rape and kill women.
"I want to come back here and talk about what makes men feel inclined to think they own women," Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said he had noticed that houses were not being built in the area, taking a swipe at the DA-run Western Cape government.
"The (national) government allocates money for houses, but no houses are built here, and so we want to know where the money goes.
"The other problem here is that many people don’t work. There are no jobs, and that is what we are working on. We are working hard to make sure that we attract investment," Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said there was work to be done ahead of the 2024 general elections.
"There is a lot of work to be done, and as the ANC, we are prepared to do the work. Come 2024, we can take back this province and return it to the ANC," Ramaphosa said.
But some residents were not buying Ramaphosa’s speech, saying he had visited the area too late, after at least three women had been raped and killed.
Local resident Asonele Matiyase, 19, said she was not convinced by Ramaphosa's visit.
"I was expecting Ramaphosa to offer some real solutions because we don’t have electricity, we don’t have houses, and we have lost people to GBV," Matiyase said.
"We have lost so many women, and he is only coming now. I was expecting something big from this visit, and I am disappointed,“ she said.