'I can smell the victory,' says Ramaphosa in last election campaign push

With only a few hours to go before South Africans cast their vote in the local government elections, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa said he was confident that his party was going to surprise many.

“ Many people thought that the ANC was on its knees and that the ANC will not mount a very successful campaign. We have mounted a really powerful campaign,” said Ramaphosa.

Speaking after addressing a small crowd that had gathered for a community meeting at the Kopanong Sports Ground in Ivory Park, Ramaphosa said: “Our own assessment is that the ANC is ready, we are fully and completely ready for the elections. Our supporters and members are primed to go out in great numbers to go and support the ANC and vote for the ANC.”

He thanked party members and supporters for driving the campaign.

“Last night I said I could smell the victory and when I see the enthusiasm of our people, all over where I have been, I am confident that we are going to surprise many.”

Ramaphosa said he was deeply humbled by the support he received during the nationwide campaign, which began in September. “I feel very encouraged that our people have responded this way. It is very humbling to see the level of support, despite the challenges and the problems that we have gone through in the last five years, particularly at local government level.”

This time around, he said the party was pinning its hopes on the renewal process that it had embarked on, hoping that it will encourage citizens to vote for the party on Monday.

True to form, Ramaphosa promised that: “We are going to change things and our monitoring system is going to be such that we will keep a close eye on what happens at local government level.

“So I go into the elections very confident and pleased. When I cast my vote, I will know that there will be many millions that are going to also cast the vote for the ANC.”

Addressing residents of Ivory Park, Ramaphosa — who was flanked by NEC member Zizi Kodwa, Gauteng premier David Makhura and newly elected Johannesburg mayor Mpho Moerane — said he was aware that the community was plagued by many service delivery problems, including old sewerage pipes, housing, ageing infrastructure and roads as well as electricity.

“When I entered here, it was dirty. When I was coming in I saw papers all over the place and there is dirt all around here.”

He told the community that Makhura had agreed that some of the residents could move into a housing development in Clayville in the Ekurhuleni metro. Ramaphosa said he had also met with Moerane, who told him that he had established a plan to solve service delivery issues in Ivory Park.

Showing the community an 18-page plan, Ramaphosa said: “The mayor said your roads are not tarred and work to address that has begun ... he also spoke about RDP houses and said he will build you houses here.”  

He told the community that he was aware that many people were unemployed in the area. But he said: “We need our people to start entering into small to medium enterprises. There are a lot of people who are running small businesses.

“Some people tell me that here in Ivory Park a lot of foreign nationals do not have permission to sell ... This is a challenge to us as South Africans that we need to stop waiting for the government to do everything for us.

“We need to take the initiative and do things ourselves, in isiZulu they say, ‘uzoyithola kanjani uhleli ekhoneni?)'. This loosely means that how are you going to achieve anything if you do not take initiative.

“Foreign nationals are entrepreneurial and have energy to make things happen for themselves by selling different things, making things and show that they are up and running, all the time. That is what we want from our fellow South Africans. They must also be entrepreneurial. We must manufacture things.”

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