Mabuza yesterday heaped praise on Ramaphosa in Modimolle in Limpopo where he was a keynote speaker at the party’s 106th anniversary celebrations.
Limpopo is Ramaphosa’s home province and was a stronghold of his backers as he campaigned for the party presidency.
Addressing a crowd that packed Ephraim Mogale Stadium, Mabuza said he was going to rally behind Ramaphosa as he cleaned the rot in the organisation.
“Your president that you elected, comrade Ramaphosa, will be supported by all of us. We will rally around him as our leader and I’m going to walk next to him.
“He is safe with me next to him,” Mabuza said.
A former member of the so-called premier league which has been backing President Jacob Zuma throughout his presidency, Mabuza decried the party’s state of affairs, saying Ramaphosa was best positioned to lead the party on a path to self-correction.
“We trust comrade Ramaphosa that he will fix all these things that have gone wrong in the ANC. I want you to trust him; he is an upright man and I will work with him to ensure that all the wrongs in the ANC are corrected,” he said.
Ramaphosa has been leading calls for the prosecution of all those implicated in allegations of state capture.
Newly elected ANC secretary general Ace Magashule had his office raided by the Hawks last weekend in the Free State where he remained premier.
The raid was linked to a dairy farm in Vrede which was controversially leased to the Guptas despite it being meant to develop emerging farmers.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit has seized around R220million worth of assets from the Guptas including the farm.
Magashule, whose son also works for the Guptas, has denied allegations that he was linked to state capture.
Mabuza said yesterday he supported the fight against corruption.
“Our people have said it loud and clear that we must stop corruption. We are going to work hard to fight corruption, we have agreed that we are going to fight state capture in all the ways it manifests itself,” he said.
“Corruption is a cancer that can eat and destroy a nation,” Mabuza said.
The ruling party must be led by morally upright people, he said, adding that many of its past leaders were religious leaders.
“That means the ANC was led by people of high moral standards, of high moral values.
“If you are a leader of the ANC, you must be respectable in society,” Mabuza said.
The ANC had been making false promises to garner votes, something he said the party will now stop as it renews itself.
“It is common sense and common knowledge that the ANC will come and promise that it will do this and do this and then disappear. They will only come when it’s election time that has come to an end now.
“Let us renew the image of the ANC, let us renew the standing of the ANC.
“All those bad tendencies that have crept into the organisation and that have made people dislike the ANC, we must do away with them,” he said.