"If you punish the ANC at the polls, then you punish the country," ANC Western Cape elections head Ebrahim Rasool said on Wednesday.

Rasool was addressing the Cape Town Press Club at the Cattle Baron grill in Mowbray.

He told the small crowd that the ANC would provide a better alternative in the Western Cape.

"Come election, we want something good. Not something perfect. And that mandate for the ANC to provide something good will come from the voters and not the ANC," he said.

Rasool said he had absolute faith in President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring the ANC and the country back to its moral compass.

Commenting on the Zondo commission, which is looking into allegations of state capture, Rasool said it was good that the names of implicated senior government officials are coming out now, rather than after the elections.

"It will allow him to take a pragmatic approach to how he deals with those implicated," said Rasool. "He [Ramaphosa] will heal this country pragmatically."

Referring to plans to win back the province from the DA, Rasool said it was important for provincial governments to work together with the national government instead of being "at loggerheads".

"The ANC has unfinished business in the province and we will continue to be in conversation with national government. Look what we did in conversation with national government to get the Anti-Gang Unit," he added.

Rasool said he would not jump the gun, saying that further plans on how an ANC government would move forward, including in the province, would be announced by Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation address on Thursday.