Two Greenside Primary School learners were invited to have tea at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s house in Hyde Park recently after they had picked up one of the ANC posters bearing Ramaphosa’s face on Beyers Naude Drive.
Grade 5 girls Aaliyah Baker and Fatima Zahra Cassiem were videoed running into the road in peak hour traffic and removing the ANC poster from the street.
“Everyone was driving over him [the poster] and he is our president and we respect him,” said Aaliyah.
The day after their short video went viral on Twitter, the girls were called to have tea at Ramaphosa’s home.
“It was so nice to be invited to his house. I felt a bit shy when I got there. In pictures, he looks grumpy but in person, he is not so scary,” said Aaliyah.
The girls, who have been friends since they were in Grade 1, described Ramaphosa as kind and sweet.
He took an interest in the girls, asking them about their favourite school subjects, what they would like to do after school and their favourite sports.
“He said he would take me to Russia one day to study ballet because I would like to become a ballerina one day,” said Fatima.
“He also asked what we would like to see in the country and I said that there should be no litter and there should be clean toilets in schools and public places.”
Aaliyah told the president that she would like to become an accountant and Ramaphosa suggested that she should aspire to become the finance minister.
Aaliyah said if she were president for a day, she would help get rid of all the drugs in communities.
The girls said when they returned to school on Tuesday, they felt like celebrities with all their friends asking what their visit was like.
“I felt famous and everyone was calling me Mrs President,” said Fatima.
School Governing Body parents’ association facilitator Nadia da Costa said, “It makes me proud to see these young women who respect authority without a political agenda. The fact that the president made the time to see these young girls who innocently picked up his poster shows that he has open doors.
#MyPresident @CyrilRamaphosa …My daughter and her friend noticed a poster of the President laying on the road on Beyes Naude Drive and they requested me to stop. The rest is on camera. @PresidencyZA @GautengANC @ANCJHB @David_Makhura @GTP_Traffstats @Lesufi @CityofJoburgZA pic.twitter.com/ukwrnkxWGm
— UniMedia Pro (@unimediapro) April 18, 2019
Thank you for saving my life girls! pic.twitter.com/VxqYCIgnlb #ThumaMina #GrowSouthAfrica
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) April 22, 2019
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