Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa raced around Cape Town on Saturday morning in whistle-stop visits to people living around the sewage and litter-filled streets of Philippi.
His convoy nosed through load-shedding traffic with ease as police temporarily cordoned off intersections to let him pass.
The first stop was the load shed Junxion Mall where shoppers walked around in the dark.
In the same area on a field near a canal, people crowded around the president as he began his speech. A man carrying a piece of cardboard with the words “Corruption Ramaphosa” made his way to the front shouting: “Free speech, free speech”.
Wiping the sweat off his face in the blazing heat while people chanted salutations to the leading party, Ramaphosa stepped forward to deliver a brief address.
At the top of his agenda was gender-based violence, housing shortages, unemployment, gangsterism and “tsotsis”.
He called for a summit of men to meet and find out why some abuse and kill women “[so that] we can talk among ourselves and get to the bottom of what makes men feel they are inclined to own women,” he said.
He repeated this message at a formal sit-down lunch in Hanover Park, load shedding trailing him.
Broaching the subject, he said that Eskom warned years ago that they needed money to fix, build and maintain the national power grid.
“Now it is costing us double,” he said as the electricity at Voorspoed Primary School was reinstated.
He did not stay to enjoy the curry with its strong aroma permeating the school’s main hall.
The Pennsylvanian minstrel group blasted Meadowlands as he left. He only stopped briefly to pose for selfies with the crowd of people rallying to meet him.
At the OR Tambo Community Hall in Khayelitsha, Ramaphosa danced on stage while the ANC Women’s League jubilantly sang for him.
This was in sharp contrast to the sewer water-filled streets he had raced through, where shacks were built on pavements within inches of the damaged roads.
Ramaphosa is on the ANC’s Letsema campaign to renew the party in the province.
“Next time, the ANC is going to be running this province,” said Ramaphosa of his hopes for the next election.
As he spoke in Khayelitsha, the electricity came back on again to loud cheers.
He urged people to prepare themselves for the imminent ANC national conference, where around 3500 branches will elect new leadership.
He blamed previous poor election performance in the Western Cape on branches choosing “fresh air”, but said the organisation has worked hard this time in the province.
“The ANC cannot continue to lose elections in the Western Cape,” said Ramaphosa.
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