Cyril charms his home supporters with tablets for schools

President Cyril Ramaphosa left scores of ANC supporters filled with jubilation when he told them that government would issue learners with tablets.

“It will take five years for learners to get tablets. But the most important thing is that our children must get better education,” Ramaphosa said during the ANC’s Limpopo provincial manifesto launch in Thohoyandou yesterday.

Gauteng was the first province to begin distributing tablets in schools.

Instead of using textbooks, learners now have curriculum materials loaded onto their tablets.

Ramaphosa also condemned what he called the “demon of racism”, saying it continued to rear its ugly head now and again.

He said the apartheid regime failed to divide the people along tribal lines.

Buoyed by the warm reception he got in his ancestral land, Ramaphosa told the crowd that the ANC was the only party that would deliver a better life.

The president said the ANC had entered a period of hope in the country.

“They have a sense of confidence. The trust that people have had in the ANC has come back. Our people are saying to the ANC ‘we know you and we support you; ANC carry on with the good work’”.

He said the future looked bright, even for Limpopo.

ANC Limpopo chairperson Chupu Mathabatha said victory was in the ANC’s DNA.

“We are to touch base with the ancestors of our movement. We are here to communicate a message of victory and nothing else,” he said.

Mathabatha said the time for divisions and factional battles was over.

“Now is the time to forget about our personal fortunes and misfortunes. This is the time to forget about the recent list conferences. Our only focus should be on winning the coming elections.”

The ANC also used the manifesto launch to welcome new members who jumped ship from Cope.

The move comes days after Cope president Mosioua Lekota labelled Ramaphosa a sell-out.

Read: ‘You condemned us’: Lekota launches scathing attack on Ramaphosa over apartheid struggle

Lekota claimed Ramaphosa wrote to the apartheid Special Branch and said that Lekota and his cohorts put communist ideas in his head.

According to Lekota, Ramaphosa was rewarded for this.

Ramaphosa responded to these claims the next day in Parliament.

Read: Ramaphosa: I was warned that the ‘EFF was an MI6 project’