Thursday, February 22, 2024 – President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on traditional leaders to allow for free political activity in their areas during the campaigns by political parties.
The county will go to the polls on May 29 after
the president announced the date this week.
Ramaphosa
said politicians will be campaigning in various
parts of the country, and traditional leaders should allow them to campaign
when they come into their villages.
This will be
one of the most hotly contested elections since the dawn of democracy in 1994.
The Electoral
Commission of South Africa (IEC) said more than 68,000 staff will be
manning thousands of voting stations.
Ramaphosa
was addressing the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San leaders on
Thursday in Parliament where he raised the issue of the elections.
“On May 29,
South Africans will be going to the polls to vote in our 7th democratic
elections for national and provincial government. As we prepare for this
historic occasion, which many in our country have been calling for, the day has
now come where South Africans will participate in the choice of their
government.
“As we
prepare for this occasion, I urge traditional leaders to continue to urge all
eligible voters to register and participate in these elections. As we have done
before, we call on traditional leaders to actively promote free and fair
campaigning. Politicians will come to your areas, and as they come to your
areas, we urge that you should promote free and fair campaigning and to ensure
that all voters can exercise their democratic right freely,” said Ramaphosa.
The
president also said he met with US Congress members on Wednesday at Tuynhuys
where they discussed a range of issues.
He said the
delegation from the US Senate and House of Representatives supported trade
relations between the US and South Africa.
Ramaphosa
said he was encouraged by the views of the members of the Congress. This was an
indication that South Africa was on the right path.
“I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday talking to
American legislators from the Senate and from the House of Representatives who
are visiting our country. They come to South Africa to come and look at
progress we have made. They all said ‘we continue to be in awe at what you have
achieved as South Africa over the years of your democracy’.
“But they
also add ‘we continue to be in great awe of your great leader Nelson Mandela’.
Then they add ‘we would like to engender, not a relationship between South
Africa and the US. We want to engender a friendship. We want to trade with you,
we want to invest in your country and we want to see the two countries mutually
benefiting from initiatives such as Agoa and many other initiatives’. That gave
me a great deal of courage that, indeed, we are on the right path,” said
Ramaphosa.
He said South Africa wanted to trade with the US as well.
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