The African National Congress (ANC), Head of Policy and Research, Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, has defended President Cyril Ramaphosa. This follows his controversial comments about ANC local government councillors.
Potgiete-Gqubule emphasised that Ramaphosa compared clean audit outcomes of ANC municipalities with those governed by the DA.
“At the gathering of more than 4, 800 ANC councillors in Soweto, the president drew from the wisdom of Oliver Reginald Tambo, reminding us that we must never shy away from learning, even from our enemies,” she said.
She also highlighted that a clean audit does not capture the lived experiences of communities.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the ANC’s roll call with councillors, aimed at reviewing progress and accelerating service delivery. He told thousands of local leaders that the only municipalities performing well are those governed by the Democratic Alliance (DA).
“There is nothing wrong with us saying, we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing, we want to go and see what Stellenbosch is doing, how [do they] craft everything. We need [to be] moving up the ladder,” Ramaphosa said.
The president also said he is deeply hurt that some ANC-led municipalities are moving backward.
SACP’s reaction to Ramaphosa’s statement
However, the spokesperson for the South African Communist Party (SACP), Mbulelo Mandlana, criticised Ramaphosa’s statement, saying it came at an unfortunate time.
Mbulelo stated that the DA must not take Ramaphosa’s remarks as absolute praise, saying that certain ANC-led government structures have achieved clean audits.
The spokesperson said he does not regard the DA as a solution to crises in the local government sphere. He suggested interventions and new ways of approaching matters of transformation.
DA’s response to Ramaphosa’ ‘endorsement’
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa’s remarks were received as an endorsement by the DA, with the party sharing some of the president’s video clips.
“President Ramaphosa’s endorsement is more proof. The DA is working hard to create jobs, root out corruption, stop crime, and deliver better services,” the DA stated.
The DA stated in a social media post that their councillors are working hard to deliver better services for everyone.
