By Libuseng Nyaka
QWAQWA – ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has requested residents of Thabo Mofutsanyana to vote for his party, citing experiences and achievements it has made in its 30 years of governing the country.
Ramaphosa was addressing thousands of ANC supporters who braved cold weather to attend a Siyanqoba rally held at Phuthaditjhaba stadium on Sunday April 28.
In his campaign trail, Ramaphosa highlighted some of the gains made by his party since it came to power in 1994, crediting the Constitution as a turning point.
“Today we are celebrating our freedom which gave us an opportunity to erase many things which were done by those who governed during apartheid, such as draconian laws of apartheid which were taking black people backwards. We thought of unity of the people and came up with the Constitution which give us our rights. Today we lead in accordance with the Constitution while in the past they were using laws promulgated by the parliament of the Boers.
“This Constitution emphasizes which human rights must be respected, be followed and implemented; that is where we are. When we took over under President Nelson Mandela he first addressed issue of equality.
“When he took over he found that there were some differences between white and black pensioners; whites were getting R1,200 monthly while black people were getting R600 after three months. He made sure every pensioner gets equal amounts. Today all our grandmothers and grandfathers get an equal amount of R2100.00.”
Ramaphosa also highlighted improvements made in the children’s education from primary education up to university.
He said school fees were abolished and a school feeding programme where children receive two meals a day was introduced, and that enables many children to access education.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa alongside ANC chairperson Mxolisi Dukwana.
“I have travelled the world, but I have never seen where children at school receive two meals without parents paying anything. It is only happening here in South Africa.
Attributing all gains and improvements to Mandela, Ramaphosa said universities and colleges are getting bursaries because of his instruction and that is what is happening even today.
“At the beginning there were 60,000 but today the number stands at 1.2 million of students who receive bursaries through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.”
While admitting some challenges of electricity and water supply, Ramaphosa said many houses in the past did not have electricity but, thanks to the though ANC, many houses now have electricity.
“Today we are counting 93 percent of people with electricity even though we have load shedding and transformers sometimes are not working, but they do have electricity. I have travelled the world and other countries have no penetration of electricity like South Africa.
“Our electricity challenges are nearing an end as we are busy working on these problems. Last year we had lots of load shedding, but they are decreasing because stations are being maintained. In terms of water supply, we made sure our people get water. Our country had water scarcity, but we went to Lesotho to get their water from the mountains through the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.”
