ANC 'needs to work harder'

2004-03-11 11:34

Mafikeng - President Thabo Mbeki, on an election campaign in Mafikeng, said on Thursday the African National Congress realised it needed to work harder to solve the local problems of unemployment, clean water and the slow movement of land claims.

"We must move to solve these problems, and we must move faster," he told the Barolong community.

Mbeki said South Africa's 10 years of democracy showed it was possible to change people's lives for the better, but also that the government should work harder to make these changes.

Dressed casually and clearly enjoying himself, Mbeki greeted schoolchildren and community elders before addressing the community.

He said Mafikeng was the home of several ANC founding families and was proud to be one of those places which made it possible for the party to have the upper hand in improving South Africa.

Mbeki said he could not ask local chief Kgosi Jeff Montshioa who he would vote for on April 14 because ballots were secret, "but I don't have to ask who you will vote for, we know who to vote for".

Mbeki said he was not asking the people to vote for parliamentarians who sat around in Cape Town and drove around in "big black Mercedes and BMW's".

"They must work to make South Africa better."

This suggestion was met with much cheering.

- SAPA