President Cyril Ramaphosa descended on KwaZulu-Natal this weekend in his last push to beg voters in the province not turn their backs on the ANC in the elections, now just 10 days away.
KwaZulu-Natal has been identified as one of the provinces where the ANC could lose its absolute majority following the establishment of the MK Party — led by popular former president Jacob Zuma.
Ramaphosa criss-crossed the province for the last time ahead of the May 29 elections with rallies in Greytown, Pietermaritzburg, Mandeni and eThekwini where he urged supporters not only to vote themselves but to bring their undecided friends and family with to make their mark for the ANC.
You see, comrades, because of you, the volunteers, we are in every corner of this country, because of your presence on the ground and your hard work we will show those who predicted an ANC loss who we are, because together they will not conquer us
— President Cyril Ramaphosa
Ramaphosa told supporters in Mandeni yesterday that despite all the warnings that the party’s support will drop below 50%, he had no doubts the ANC would achieve more than that.
“You see, comrades, because of you, the volunteers, we are in every corner of this country, because of your presence on the ground and your hard work we will show those who predicted an ANC loss who we are, because together they will not conquer us,” he said.
Ramaphosa’s trip to KwaZulu-Natal followed several visits by other party stalwarts during the election campaign, including recent appearances by former president Thabo Mbeki, national executive committee members and alliance partners.
Expressing confidence in the ANC’s electoral effort, Ramaphosa said: “Our polls tell us we are going to have an outright victory — our concentration has not only been on KwaZulu-Natal, it’s also in a number of places where we have a big population, where you have a big population you have to make a bigger effort.
“So in KZN, Gauteng and other provinces we made a real push. Campaigning for elections is about making sure you reach as many people as possible, having met our people here we are certain of victory,” Ramaphosa said.
The president assured ANC supporters and the community of Mandeni yesterday that the next ANC-led administration will purge thieves and “lazy deployees”, will work harder and be “serious like never before because when the ANC works this country moves forward”.
“As we go into this election we are emphasising that job creation is our priority, we are going to release R15bn to equip our people with skills for the job market — here in KZN we will do a big skills programme, we are prepared to also create an expanded public works programme.”
Ramaphosa promised that his government will also prioritise infrastructure projects including building bridges, roads, RDP housing and serviced sites for those who are able to build their own homes.
He trumpeted the way energy supply had been stabilised.
“With load-shedding things are better now and they will only get better going forward, that is why we say the ANC will fix this issue because we are fixing it, we are doing things to improve the quality of lives of our people.”
Ramaphosa said the National Health Insurance Act he signed into law on Wednesday was another crucial intervention by the ANC government to make sure that the poor were could access quality health care.
“Our people will now access quality health care when they are sick, that is the ANC difference,” said Ramaphosa.
He told supporters that the ANC was not intimidated by the proliferation of new parties, such as “what they call MK”.
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