With one week to go before the local government elections, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa spent Sunday in Soweto making a delivery case. His pitch to voters rested less on promises than on a record: 32 years of running government, and the transformation he says the party has carried out across the country and in Soweto specifically.
Ramaphosa, who usually casts his own ballot in Soweto, framed the township itself as the evidence. “The people of Soweto, which was like a real backwards and backyard city of Johannesburg, is what it is today in terms of development, because of the ANC leadership and ANC delivery,” he said. In his telling, the physical and social change visible on the ground is the governing party’s work, whether or not observers approve of it.
Asked directly why people should keep trusting the ANC, he pointed to longevity in office as the foundation of that trust. “Well, the ANC has been running government for 32 years and the transformation that we see in our country, whether people like it or not, whether they hate the ANC or not, has been brought about by the African National Congress,” he said. Anyone paying attention, he added, would credit the party with what has been built: “And along the way, everyone who’s got eyes, who’s got ears, will testify to the fact that, yes, this has been delivered by the ANC.”
The record was not unblemished, and he did not pretend otherwise. He acknowledged what he called “missteps” across three decades in government, while insisting the achievements outweigh the failures. His case leaned on experience and on delivery already achieved, which he argued would continue. “So, people should continue trusting the ANC, because of its experience and the delivery it has brought, it will continue doing so. And of course, along the way, there’ll be missteps, and there’ll also be areas where there’s been excellence,” he said.
When weighing that record, Ramaphosa offered a deliberately upbeat accounting. “And when you do the balance, when you look at the balance sheet, there’s more positive than negative. So, I always say that the glass is half full; in fact, here, three-quarters full,” he said. The balance sheet image, delivery on one side and missteps on the other, summed up his pitch in the final stretch of the campaign.
Earlier that same day, at Johannesburg’s City Hall, the tone was more self-critical. Speaking to an engagement with business academics and professionals, Ramaphosa urged people to “call us out” when corrupt, an apparent reference to the ANC itself. The remark sat alongside his campaign message: a party confident in what it has delivered, but conceding that missteps have occurred along the way.
For Ramaphosa, the closing week came down to a single proposition. The ANC has been the operator of government for 32 years, the development now visible in places like Soweto is the result, and the balance between excellence and error still tips, in his assessment, firmly toward the positive. Whether voters accept that accounting will be tested at the polls within days.