Dressed in African National Congress (ANC) regalia, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the residents of Alexandra on Thursday and called on local government to clean up the township, stressing he was giving Mayor Herman Mashaba and the City of Johannesburg municipality a chance.

Ramaphosa, who was joined by Gauteng Premier David Makhura, assured Alexandra residents that their message that they were “sick and tired of poor service delivery” was heard throughout the country owing to the Shutdown Alexandra protest.

He called on provincial government to meet with Mashaba to address the issues of Alexandra residents and urged them to do so by next week.

He also stressed to residents that he was disturbed by the dirt, rats and human waste that he saw during his visit in the township.

“What has disturbed me is the filth and the dirt that I see here. That is the responsibility of the local government. I am saying we must remove the dirt from Alexandra, we must clean up Alexandra. The local government, the municipality must embark on a programme to clean up Alexandra. We cannot live with rats, with filth,” he said emphatically.

He called on the City of Johannesburg to bring in plumbers and sewage workers to clean up the township “in the next few days” and said he no longer wanted to hear excuses.

“Without putting blame on anyone, all of us as leaders, we must respond to the pain and suffering that our people are going through,” Ramaphosa stated.

He directed the national and provincial government to meet the #AlexTotalShutDown committee and emphasised that there should be action.

He asked that a report be submitted to outline what roles local, provincial and national government could play and urged all spheres to work together to resolve the issues.

“In the spirit of Thuma Mina I am saying this is the law. We must make sure the concerns of the people of Alexandra must be addressed. My comrades and colleagues are here. They are going to do it in the government. It is not representing the ANC, they are representing the people of South Africa,” he said.

Despite his insistence that the Alexandra issues would be dealt with as government and that delegates would not represent the ANC, he advised residents to vote and said now was the time and urged them to vote ANC.

He chanted, “First ballot paper vote ANC, second ballot paper vote ANC.”

He also commended Alexandra residents for being dignified during their protests.

“You have handled yourselves in a very dignified way. You’ve been protesting and you must protest. When things don’t go right you have the right to protest. But when we protest let us protest peacefully, let us protest without destroying buildings and without hurting other people,” Ramaphosa pleaded.