Ramaphosa Pays Cash for Granny’s Knitted Jersey in Mdantsane — ANC Eyes Eastern Cape Votes

Cyril Ramaphosa crouched beside an elderly street vendor on Thursday morning and held up a hand-knitted jersey in the colours of the African National Congress, drawing a crowd of cheering residents deep inside Mdantsane township, Buffalo City.

The President allegedly chose the garment deliberately from Mama Nozipho Dlamini’s folding table, reportedly paying her cash on the spot before slipping the woollen pullover over his collared shirt for the cameras. Officials confirmed the stop formed part of a broader door-to-door canvassing blitz the ANC launched this week across the Eastern Cape ahead of the upcoming local government elections.

Buffalo City Metro ANC branch coordinator Thembinkosi Gcilitshana told journalists the presidential visit targeted Unit 7 and surrounding streets because ward-level polling data flagged declining support among older residents. “We are listening to communities,” he stated, adding that the party wanted voters to see leadership walking alongside ordinary citizens rather than arriving in motorcades.

Mdantsane has historically returned strong ANC majorities, but the party faces mounting pressure from the Patriotic Alliance and ActionSA, both of which opened dedicated ward offices in the township during the past eighteen months. Unemployment there hovers near sixty percent, and several residents who watched Thursday’s visit voiced frustration over persistent burst water pipes on Zwelakhe Road and unreliable electricity.

Mama Dlamini, seventy-three, wiped tears with the corner of her blue apron after Ramaphosa gripped her hand and asked her name. She had woken at four in the morning to arrange her display, stacking jerseys by size on a plastic crate she wheels from her nearby Zwelihle home daily. Neighbours gathered quickly, mobile phones raised, the high winter sky flat and pale above the corrugated rooftops.

Whether the warm gesture translates into ballot-box gains for the ANC remains the question every analyst in the province is asking. Residents praised the President’s warmth, yet several wondered aloud when the municipality would fix their streets. Will a single township handshake be enough to hold Buffalo City’s most populous ward, or has trust frayed beyond what any jersey can mend?

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