Cyril Ramaphosa talks load shedding, blasts Western Cape government

President Cyril Ramaphosa infiltrated the DA stronghold to lay his ANC-infused electioneering propaganda, on Friday afternoon.

The president touched down in Delft, a township in the Cape Flats, to engage with residents and further cement the sentiments that were shared by his comrade, Minerals Minister, Gwede Mantashe, who was in Gugulethu on Thursday.

Read – Load shedding has caused a sharp increase in SA citizens moving abroad

ANC hits the ground running in Cape Town

The ANC is hot on the campaign trail in the Western Cape just 47 days before the country heads to the polls to elect a new leader.

As reported by Sowetan Live, the president was put to task about the current issues that affect South Africans, like load shedding, crime and a lack of support from provincial government on housing.

Cyril Ramaphosa talks load shedding and housing

Ramaphosa remained adamant on the fact that load shedding would be a thing of the past in nothing but a matter of weeks.

Read – Eskom teases fewer occurrences of load shedding this weekend

“Do not panic” – Ramaphosa discusses power cuts

He implored residents to not panic. His view was that people were hard at work, 24 hours a day, working on a turnaround strategy for Eskom to improve its power supply.

“I am not worried‚ because South Africans are being given full information. We are being transparent and the challenges that Eskom faces emanated from our recent past. Many people are aware of the wrong things that were done in the past.

“I am hoping that by the time the elections come this load-shedding that’s debilitating will have been addressed‚ that the grid will have stabilised‚ because we want an election process that will not be weakened or interrupted or interfered [with] by load-shedding,” he said.

Ramaphosa confirmed that he would be in talks with the International Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to discuss contingency plans in case rotational power cuts persist until May.

Read – Human Rights Day: “We will overcome Eskom crisis” – says Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa blames Western Cape govt for failure to deliver housing

The president also laid in on the Western Cape government when he was approached about the issue of a lack of housing distribution in the province.

He vehemently denied that national government had been doing nothing to see to it that more displaced South Africans had proper housing.

Instead, he laid the blame squarely on the provincial government, stating that it was returned R1.7-billion that had been allocated for the escalation of housing projects in Cape Town, to the National Treasury.

Read – Cyclone Idai: This is how you can assist the survivors

“The saddest part is that the province has returned R1.7bn to the treasury for housing projects‚ where money was not spent. That for me is very tragic that a structure of government should return money to Treasury having not spent.

“Treasury allocates on the basis of budgetary requirements and structures of government are there to spend the money and spending the money on housing is about development‚ it’s about giving our peopled dignity‚ it’s about giving them a better life,” he exclaimed.

The president stopped by in eMfuleni and Khayelitsha too. He is expected to remain in the Western Cape for the remainder of the weekend, where the electioneering will continue for the ANC.