PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the electorate to reject corrupt leaders during the local government elections to demonstrate their intolerance for corruption, theft and mismanagement of funds meant to benefit the poor.
South African will vote for local government leaders on October 27.
Ramaphosa was speaking during Freedom Day celebrations at the Charlotte Maxeke Recreational Centre in Botshabelo, Free State.
“If those who claim to serve you are not doing so, vote them out,” said Ramaphosa.
“I call on you to decide who among the many candidates has the ability and the determination to work tirelessly on your behalf. I call on you to determine the future of your family and your community by putting your confidence in those parties that have the best policies and the will and the means to implement them. I call on you to demonstrate, with your vote, your intolerance for corruption, theft and mismanagement of the funds that are meant for the benefit of you, the citizen.”
Ramaphosa said the upcoming local government elections were an opportunity for voters to make their voices heard and to be part of the change they want to see.
“Of the many great facets of democracy is that we are able to exercise our right to protest. But when we resort to violent demonstrations, burning, looting and the destruction of property, we are undermining the very cause we seek to advance. Exercising our right to vote is by far the most powerful form of protest,” said Ramaphosa.
The president also called on South Africans to reject homophobia and all forms of intolerance against members of the LGBTQI+ community.
“Over the past few months there have been a series of terrible crimes committed against members of this community, including murder. This is something of which we as a nation are deeply ashamed. I want to send a strong message that hate crime will not be tolerated in our society, and that those behind these crimes will be found and brought to book,” said Ramaphosa.
He further said many have paid the ultimate price so that “w are able to breathe the clean air of freedom today”.
“Over the years we have encountered and overcome many challenges. But there are still many challenges that we are yet to overcome. These are problems common to us all and they impact us all,” he said.
Freedom Day on 27 April is an annual celebration of South Africa’s first non-racial democratic elections of 1994.
EFF leader Julius Malema questioned the freedom SA celebrated on Tuesday, asking: “What type of freedom is this without water, toilets, shelter, without access to quality education, access to clinics and hospitals, roads, with the highest unemployment among the youth, poverty and hunger among the so-called liberated.”
The EFF held its Freedom Day rally in the Saulsville Arena in Atteridgeville, Tshwane.
Malema also chastised South Africans who continued to vote for the ANC of being “without a conscience”.
“Your children are being killed asking for free education. They are not asking for nyaope [drug]. They ask to be admitted for education without money, but they are shot at with rubber bullets yet you continue to vote for the people who kill your children,” said Ramaphosa.
“When you go out to vote, leaving your unemployed children, voting for the same organisation that is responsible for your children’s employment, where is your conscience? This government has not even given you health care but you still vote for them.”
- Inside Politics
