Johannesburg - "We want our money back'', presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa said to families who have looted the country.
Speaking during an OR Tambo Memorial Lecture in Nkone Maruping Primary school in Soweto on Saturday, Ramaphosa warned that the party would get its money back from a specific family.
"We must go back and say to certain families, we want our money back."
The deputy president's statement is a thinly veiled warning to the Gupta family which has been associated with multiple state owned entities in the #GuptaLeaks.
The Gupta brothers are reported to have received kickbacks from Eskom and Prasa and have been accused of influencing key Cabinet positions such as treasury and public enterprises.
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Ramaphosa was treated to warm welcome. He said Tambo was an exemplary leader who would want the African National Congress to reclaim its status as a glorious movement.
"We must be determined to get rid of factions within the ANC. We must get rid of divisions within the ANC. We must be able to identify those who want divide our movement and say not in our name. We need to choose leaders that will not divide the ANC," he said.
Policy implementation
Ramaphosa said the party needed to listen to its people and those who critique the movement.
"We must listen to the concerns of our people without dismissing them. When people see something wrong, there is something wrong. When our people see corruption it means there is corruption. When our people see that their resources are being stolen by certain people it means this is happening and we should listen."
READ: The ANC should never return to the state it was in during Polokwane - Zweli Mkhize
He praised the party's policies, but however, said the ANC needed to sharpen its leadership beyond its elective conference in order to implement them.
"We have all the good policies, all right visions, but the problem is implementation. When we come out of national conference, we want those leaders we have chosen to be those who can implement policies."
Ramaphosa has been at full steam, campaigning to become president of the ANC as the party heads to its elective conference in December.
He is pitted against former African Union Commission Chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who also held a rally in Alexandra in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The ANC declared 2017 as the year of OR Tambo. Several party leaders have travelled across the country delivering lectures as part of ANC's celebration of its longest serving president.