President Cyril Ramaphosa says it is “painful” to admit that many DA-led municipalities are outperforming the ANC in delivering services.

He has urged ANC councillors to step up and do better, during the ANC’s roll call for councillors event at the FNB Stadium in Soweto.

“It is hugely painful each time when the Auditor General comes to report to Cabinet and they put up their report, and those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities. And I can name it here because there’s nothing wrong with competition. They are often DA-controlled municipalities.”

Ramaphosa says ANC led municipalities must ask what is it that the DA are doing that is better.

“And there’s nothing wrong with us saying, we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing. We want to go and see what Stellenbosch is doing. How do they craft everything? We need to be moving up the ladder of being good at what we do, we cannot forever stay at the bottom. It hurts me deeply when I continue to see that our municipalities sometimes tend to move even backwards.”

He emphasized that audit outcomes are important.

“I’m told by the Auditor General that a number of our financial statements are not even prepared at the council level. They are prepared outside. And even as they come back, they are often wrong. Now, what it means is that we do need to get capable people. Our country is not short of people who understand numbers. It’s not short of people who understand accounting. Let us go and get people who understand accounting unless we want the books to be cooked. And I would say, away with cooking of the books. Cooking of the books must end today.”

The President said the ANC must get people who can draft the books properly and present an audit outcome that is going to be in line with what is expected.

The DA has latched on to Ramaphosa’s comment’s reposting it, with the party’s federal chairperson Helen Zille saying while it must be painful for the President to admit this, “the truth hurts.”

🚨”Those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities… they are often DA-controlled municipalities.” – Cyril Ramaphosa, ANC President

The DA gets things done! 🇿🇦#DAdelivers pic.twitter.com/4NnvqgJB1J

— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) September 15, 2025

“The president is right, competition is important in the democracy, and he is also right that if you compare ANC government to DA government, the DA government is by far better. It is important for the president to recognise this, and I think the whole country will take note,” Zille was further quoted as saying.