‘Keep quiet, you're drunk’: Ramaphosa orders unruly Ga-Rankuwa residents

An ANC campaign rally in Ga-Rankuwa, Tshwane, temporarily descended into chaos on Friday when angry residents demanded their grievances be addressed.

“You. Put your placards down. I have seen them,” said party president Cyril Ramaphosa, pointing his finger at the group of placard-carrying residents.

At around midday, shortly after a door-to-door campaign at an informal settlement, Ramaphosa made his way to a small sports ground nearby. When he arrived, some locals cheered for him while others expressed their rage at the manner in which the candidate councillors’ process had been handled.

At the mini-rally, Ramaphosa greeted the crowd and began his campaign speech. However, not long after he started speaking, he was interrupted by screaming residents who hurled insults at the local councillor.

With a smile on his face, Ramaphosa said sternly: “Keep quiet. You are drunk.”

He then jokingly added: “When it is this hot and you drink alcohol, it is fermenting inside you and drives you crazy.”

A local ANC member, Lebohang Tifo, told TimesLIVE: “The problem is they have brought the president and we were expecting the president is going to attend to our problems.

“The processes at ward 31 and ward 32 were nullified because the guidelines were not followed, especially in ward 31. We are not going to accept the ward councillors at ward 31 and 32.”

Resident Lesego Gutvao said residents had been “going back and forth” trying to deal with complaints against their local government representatives.

“We started by closing the IEC [Electoral Commission voting station] because our grievances were not met. Then we went to close the legislature at Sisulu House and Luthuli House, hoping they will attend to them. Even today, we are still waiting.”

He said the community was “tired of the killings of comrades in ward 32”.

He said one ANC member was shot 22 times at his home, and Godfrey Gauwe was also murdered.

Sello Mello complained of corruption in the area.

“We need councillors who listen to the ANC and if they do not, we will refer them to the rules of the ANC,” he said.

Eventually the crowd was brought under control and Ramaphosa continued with his campaign message.

“Let us go out in our numbers on November 1. We are going back to Luthuli House to tell them you are going to vote for the ANC.”

TimesLIVE