Hitting the campaign trail in Mamelodi, Pretoria, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane has maintained that despite having Cyril Ramaphosa as its new president, the African National Congress (ANC) is still just a broken vehicle looking to benefit itself.

Maimane and Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga visited the informal traders' market and taxi rank in Mamelodi West on Thursday where they engaged with residents on a number of issues, including this year's general elections.

Speaking on the sidelines of the walkabout, Maimane told journalists that while he believes Ramaphosa is a decent individual, it "remains factually true that he is surrounded by people who have committed crime against South Africa".

"I always tell communities, if you have a rotten bag of potatoes and take a fresh one and put it in, don't expect the fresh one to freshen the whole bag, expect that the bag will remain totally rotten," Maimane said.

The DA leader said that this was evident as former president Jacob Zuma could possibly be returning to Parliament in 2019 if he accepts a party nomination as an MP and passes the party's vetting process.

"This is the same ANC, just with a different driver in the front and therefore, for us, what we will always maintain is to recognise that Mr Ramaphosa supports the ANC and will put the ANC above the interests of South Africa."

High unemployment ANC's 'greatest crime'

Maimane also said it was shocking to see so many people without jobs in the township and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the ANC.

"It must disturb all of us that when we go around in communities like this one, many people are sitting around, they don't work, they are worried about the delivery of basic services and when you engage people you realise that, actually, this is the crisis, it's the four out of ten people not working," Maimane said.

"The greatest crime that the ANC has committed on the people of South Africa is not Jacob Zuma, it's allowing four out of every 10 adults to not have work."

Msimanga said he engaged with a number of young people who were gambling for money at the taxi rank. They said they had children and that without jobs, they needed to find some way to feed their children.

"We need to attract investment to Mamelodi so that jobs can be created. They need to experience what it's like to live in a South Africa where there is a difference," said Msimanga.

Campaign promises

Taking another swipe at the ANC, Maimane said that the ANC had no plan and all that it could do was copy DA plans. He claimed that the ANC had allegedly stolen a campaign slogan from the opposition party.

"They don't have a plan for jobs, we have a plan for the economy, we have a plan to bring all South Africans together across all racial groups and all communities."

Maimane said that the DA was offering to build one South Africa for all.

"A job in every home, that we can secure our borders, make sure we have an honest and reliable police service and, more seriously, that we can root out corruption and accelerate the delivery of basic services, that's what the people of the country want.

"We had ANC government all along, they've had their turn, now it's our opportunity to bring about change and if we can't [do] it nationally, then we have change here in Gauteng, so the people of Gauteng can know, we can have a government that works for them."