Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa faced controversy after telling ANC councillors to learn from DA-run municipalities, which some interpreted as an admission that DA municipalities are better managed.
At an ANC roll call meeting, he cited better audit outcomes in DA areas like Cape Town and Stellenbosch, urging ANC councils to study their practices.
“I can name it here because there’s nothing wrong with competition. They are often DA-controlled municipalities. We need to ask ourselves, what is it that they are doing that is better than what we are doing?,” Ramaphosa said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that DA-run municipalities often perform better than ANC-led ones, urging the ANC to learn from the DA. pic.twitter.com/YzyobeJEyD
— MDN NEWS (@MDNnewss) September 15, 2025
“And there’s nothing wrong with us saying we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing. We want to go and see what Stellenbosch is doing.”
He continued: “We cannot forever stay at the bottom.”
“It hurts me deeply when I continue to see that our municipalities sometimes tend to move even backwards. And you are the people who can improve that. The audit outcomes are important.”
Following backlash, Ramaphosa clarified his remarks, telling SABC News that his statement was driven by the Auditor-General’s reports, which often show that “municipalities in the Western Cape have clean audits.”
LIVE NOW | ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has sought to explain the remarks he made on Sunday about the DA municipalities being “better run” in SA, saying his statement was driven by the AG report, which often reveals that “municipalities in the Western Cape have clean audits.” pic.twitter.com/B2wBbWrbI6
— SABC News (@SABCNews) September 18, 2025
He emphasised that while DA municipalities may perform well on audits, they do not always deliver transformative change for residents.
“From a transformative point of view, they are not really meeting the mark, and a number of ANC municipalities actually meet the mark.
“For instance, if you were to talk to our people in Phillippi, in Delf in Kayamandia and in Langa they will tell you that those clean audits are not resulting in the transformation of their lives where they live because there are enormous challenges, and this is where DA municipalities must learn a lot from the ANC municipalities,” he told SABC News.
Ramaphosa stressed the need to balance compliance with the impact on citizens’ lives and admitted he should have explained this more fully to councillors.
“I should have talked about the full equation. The full equation is that there are compliance issues and there are the transformative issues. Both need to go hand in hand, and when I made the example, I should have made a comprehensive one,” said Ramaphosa.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, X and Instagram
Picture: X/@PresidencyZA
Compiled by Betha Madhomu
