{"id":21758,"date":"2013-08-07T18:59:33","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T16:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/ramaphosa-goes-on-kzn-charm-offensive\/"},"modified":"2013-08-07T18:59:33","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T16:59:33","slug":"ramaphosa-goes-on-kzn-charm-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/ramaphosa-goes-on-kzn-charm-offensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa goes on KZN charm offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/2cf2d_2646435304.jpg\" alt=\"ramaphosa\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">THE MERCURY<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa charmed the crowds in Empangeni on Tuesday. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/politics\/anc-vows-to-win-tlokwe-1.1556990\">ANC vows to win Tlokwe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/politics\/anc-calls-up-big-guns-for-by-elections-1.1557756\">ANC calls up big guns for by-elections<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa campaigned aggressively in Zululand on Tuesday \u2013 continuing his efforts to introduce himself to President Jacob Zuma\u2019s stronghold. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Ramaphosa received a formal welcome in Empangeni and Esikhawini where he visited taxi ranks, shopping centres and townships. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He was introduced to the locals by KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC and ANC provincial chairman Senzo Mchunu, with members of the local ANC. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">However, his singing and dancing on stage was not as charismatic as Zuma, ANC supporters said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">One elderly woman struggled to pronounce his name when she introduced herself and complained that she had problems receiving her pension. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">She said that she was sick and had walked from her home to meet Ramaphosa as news had spread that he would be visiting he area.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">She battled to get her tongue around the name \u201cCyril\u201d causing peals of laughter. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Ramaphosa wrote down the elderly woman\u2019s details and promised that he would investigate her problem. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The ANC deputy president was mobbed by women dressed in party T-shirts who rushed to take his picture and meet him. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">One of the ANC members stopped a television reporter from asking questions about Zimbabwe, saying she would \u201cjust complicate\u201d things. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">When asked by The Mercury about the his position on Zimbabwe, after Zuma this week congratulated President  Robert Mugabe on his victory, he replied: \u201cThe ANC\u2019s position on Zimbabwe is as President Jacob Zuma put it firmly this week. I don\u2019t have another position.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Addressing a rally at Esikhawini FET College, Ramaphosa called on KZN to ensure a 90 percent victory in next year\u2019s general elections. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cWe are going to the elections now. When we go there, we have a record of what we have done. We are not like other parties. We don\u2019t lie, gossip and create rumours; our record speaks for itself,\u201d Ramaphosa  said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">In a swipe at DA leader Helen Zille, Ramaphosa told the crowd the ANC wanted to take back the Western Cape from the \u201cmadam\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cKZN has 930 delegates. You\u2019re our leading province. KZN is the home of the ANC \u2013 the ANC belongs to KZN. I want nothing less than 80 percent from KZN,\u201d he said, informing residents it was up to them to ensure Zuma continues to run the country. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Ramaphosa urged a young man who was unemployed to consider studying and to work hard. He emphasised the importance of education and took the young man\u2019s number, promising him that he would ensure that he secured funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He also said the party would not tolerate corruption. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cWe will root out corruption within our ranks,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE MERCURY ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa charmed the crowds in Empangeni on Tuesday. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo Related Stories ANC vows to win Tlokwe ANC calls up big guns for by-elections Durban &#8211; ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa campaigned aggressively in Zululand on Tuesday \u2013 continuing his efforts to introduce himself to President Jacob Zuma\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-21758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}