Imbizo an opportunity to 'listen to the people' and act - President Ramaphosa

• Published date: 20 May 2022
• Publication title: South African Official News

The Presidential Imbizo at Carolina in Mpumalanga has kicked off in the province's Gert Sibande District.

This is the third imbizo to be held in the country with communities in the North West and Free State provinces already having had their opportunity to engage with President Cyril Ramaphosa, cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and leaders from both provincial and local government.

Earlier in the day, President Ramaphosa told an engagement with business people in Carolina that the Presidential Izimbizo are a deepening of the country's young democracy.

'This Imbizo gives us an opportunity to interface and interact with our people and we have been able to reach out to thousands of people as we've been holding these Izimbizo.

'We are here as national government, as provincial as well as the local government to listen to our people, to hear what our people have to say. This is what enriches our democracy. This is what allows our democracy to show that it is alive,' he said.

Turning to the issue of a plan by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture to erect a giant flag of South Africa, the President said the backlash from South Africans at the flag's R22 million cost is also an example of how democracy is at work in South Africa.

'The…department came to cabinet with the initiative and we approved not having looked...