News24 | ANC president Ramaphosa campaigns in DA-led City of Cape Town, urges moral reflection

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa took his party’s campaign to the Salvation Church of the Revival of Faith in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.

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• ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa urged national reflection ahead of the local elections, emphasising moral stocktaking over political contestation.
• He called on parents and churches to combat school dropout rates, emphasising the importance of completing Grade 12.
• The Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the ANC, allowing 181 candidates to contest the 4 November elections.

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa says the upcoming local government elections are a moment for national reflection and moral stocktaking, not merely political contestation.

Ramaphosa took the party’s campaign to the Salvation Church of the Revival of Faith in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, where he invoked the anti-apartheid struggle, called for gratitude for democratic progress, and urged voters to ask: “How far have we travelled?”

The president spent his weekend in the DA-run Western Cape, where he planned to embark on door-to-door campaigning after his pitch to congregants.

“Elections are going to be happening soon. But those elections are not merely for choosing leaders; they are also a moment of reflection,” Ramaphosa said.

The president further stated that during door-to-door visits, one of the saddest things he encountered was young people who hadn’t finished Grade 12 despite free education being available.

“As we go from house to house… this is what I find. I find there will be a father or a grandfather, or a mother or a grandmother, in the house and I always ask questions when I find young people. I say, ‘What are you doing with your life?’”

He said he found that many of these young people had not even finished high school.

“They have not finished their 12 years of education. Quite a number of them tell me that I got to Grade 9, I got to Grade 10, I got to Grade 11, and I did not finish my Grade 12,” Ramaphosa said.

Addressing the apostle directly, Ramaphosa said:

Apostle, I’m instructing you. At every Sunday sermon, please insert a message and remind the parents of this congregation to ensure that their children do finish Grade 12 and that they pass.

He also made the call to parents.

“I’m saying to our people who are parents, please do not allow your child to drop out of school. As parents, we need to make sure that our children do finish, at the very least, Grade 12 because a person who has not finished Grade 12 is not educated,” Ramaphosa said.

The church address comes a few days after the Constitutional Court ruled in the ANC’s favour in the list submission case against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

The apex court ruled that 181 ANC candidates (51 ward and 130 proportional representation) across six municipalities could contest the 4 November local government elections, overturning an Electoral Court ruling that had excluded them.

The IEC accepted the ruling and extended the same relief to 32 other similarly affected parties.

READ | IEC says ConCourt’s ruling on missing ANC candidates will apply to all parties

Ramaphosa said the ANC would now proceed with confidence.

“We have now put all those candidates forward, and we are grateful that the Constitutional Court also ruled that those candidates whose names have not been accepted have now been accepted,” Ramaphosa said.

He said any candidates embroiled in corruption and wrongdoing would be removed from their positions.

“We do not want candidates or representatives who are going to be corrupt, who are going to be employing their own friends, who are going to be employing their own relatives. We want candidates and representatives who are going to advance the interests of our people,” Ramaphosa said.