"This is a failed province, no matter how you look at it," Agang SA leader Dr Mamphela Ramphele told a handful of people gathered at The Highlander guest house in Worcester Street on Thursday 28 November.
"This is a failed province, no matter how you look at it," Agang SA leader Dr Mamphela Ramphele told a handful of people gathered at The Highlander guest house in Worcester Street on Thursday 28 November.
Agang SA was launched as a movement in June and soon after, Ramphele announced its status as a party that would contest the 2014 national elections.
Agang leader Dr Mamphela Ramphele was in studio at Radio Grahamstown yesterday as part of her two-day visit to Makana Municipality.
After addressing about 50 people gathered at the Highlander on Thursday morning Ramphele was taken on a walkabout tour of Grahamstown.
In her interview with Radio G's Xolani Kondile, Ramphele stressed that public servants need to meaningfully engage with citizens for good governance. Today she'll visit nearby towns like Seven Fountains, Riebeeck East and Alicedale.
In the Grahamstown leg of her campaign trail, Ramphele pointed to the Eastern Cape's bad roads, poor provision of water and electricity and crumbling education system.
She accused the ANC of betraying former president Nelson Mandela's legacy. Ramphele said the Eastern Cape was once the mecca of education on the continent, with many of its best known leaders coming from this province.
"What has gone on for the past 20 years is a betrayal of Mandela's legacy," she said.
Ramphele said the ANC-led government's practices were effectively worse than apartheid-era laws.
"That's why we say this is not Mandela's party," Ramphele said. "These others are just crooks.
"We as women need to rediscover the power we had when we marched to the Union Buildings… you and I have the power in our hands."
Ramphele said the only card the ANC now has to play is it is Mandela's party.
"They are lying. It's a betrayal. If he could speak, he would give them a piece of his mind.
"We need to restore the idea of the promise of the past leaders of the ANC."
She stressed the importance of citizen engagement, of a change of mindset through civic education. She said Agang believed that people needed someone to listen to them.
"There is a disconnect between the voter and the representative," she said. "The wheel is there, it's just that it in not in the right hands."
She encouraged people to vote because it was the only power they had as citizens.
"We missed out on a chance of kicking the ANC out of government by not voting in 2009," she said.
Ramphele criticised the country's spiritual leaders for remaining quiet while tragic incidents took place in the country.
"A lot is happening in our communities, but you hardly hear them talking about these issues," she said.
Ramphele had strong words for the country's men in blue, too. She said the police force needed a complete overhaul. "We need the international community, led by the United Nations, to get involved. We need to completely revamp the police system and make policing a service again, not a force."
Ramphele called for a government that is answerable to its citizens.
"Agang says let us have a clean, competent, accountable government."
"We need to instil pride in people, because a person who has pride will never rape a baby."
