President Ramaphosa Follows in the Footsteps of his Predecessors

11 April 2019

Today, in Alexandra, President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed his intention to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors.

Rather than accepting a request for him to be part of an inter-governmental engagement with the community of Alexandra, he opted for an ANC rally.

Ramaphosa has shown he is in fact no different to violent ANC thugs which have hijacked concerns of Alexandra residents.

As with his predecessors, President Ramaphosa did nothing to address the real issues faced by the residents of Alexandra, but focussed on making empty promises and more political rhetoric.

The people of Alexandra did not have the President of the country today, they saw the President of the ANC.

President Ramaphosa refers to some fear of the City of Johannesburg to address the community of Alexandra, a mere few days before our scheduled engagement on Monday 15 April 2019.

The difference between our multi-party government and President Ramaphosa is that we are committed to engaging around plans of actions and budgets.

President Ramaphosa is offering the people of Alexandra more of the same broken promises and no accountability for decades of failure and corruption.

It is President Ramaphosa who is afraid.

President Ramaphosa is hiding Behind the busloads of ANC members brought into today’s election rally.

He knows that his party faithful have learnt not to ask the difficult questions that the people of Alexandra are asking.

They will not ask him “where is the R1.3 billion from the Alexandra Renewal Project?” They will not ask him “why his former Mayors and Premiers did not deliver in Alexandra?”

They will not ask him “why are you placing the blame for 25 years of ANC government at the door of a City government of only 2.5 years in office?”

What is even more brazen about President Ramaphosa’s approach is how he has begun making new promises, while never accounting for the old promises that have never materialised.

President Ramaphosa speaks of building 1 million houses, but like his predecessors, like the Alexandra Renewal Project, and like the Statement of Intent, he is scant on details, budgets or timelines.

How does President Ramaphosa figure this will be achieved when his very own national government is cutting housing grants to Cities and Provinces alike?

President Ramaphosa is clearly afraid of accountability, and in this it is clear that the New Dawn is actually the same as the past.

It would appear that President Ramaphosa has just woken up to the fact that there is a place could Alexandra and that it is suffered for every one of the 25 years that the ANC has been in government.

Our multi-party government will continue to improve service delivery and combat the ANC legacy of looting of initiatives like the Alexandra Renewal Project which could have improved the lives of the residents of Alexandra.

We will continue with our daily work in undoing the legacy of the last 25 years of ANC government in Johannesburg.

We will continue to engage the residents with our plans, not our rhetoric. We will listen to their legitimate grievances that were hijacked by the ANC.

The residents of Alexandra and Gauteng will see the actions of the ANC and President Ramaphosa for what they are, cheap political stunts before an election to mask what they fear most, accountability for their track record of failure.

Issued by Luyanda Mfeka, Director: Mayoral Communications, 11 April 2019