President Cyril Ramaphosa meets with Fatimah Zehra Cassiem and Aaliyah Baker of Greenside Primary school.(Supplied)

Clean bathrooms at their school and shelter for everyone who lived in townships – these are two of the things a pair of Greenside Primary School pupils wanted President Cyril Ramaphosa to do for them in his capacity as head of state. 

Aaliyah Baker and Fatima Zehra Cassiem, both aged 10, visited Ramaphosa on Monday after they were seen in a video picking up an ANC poster along Beyers Naudé Drive in Johannesburg last Thursday. 

In the video, the two girls were seen explaining that they had come across the poster of Ramaphosa lying on the road and that they were “not going to allow anyone to drive over our president, so [they] are going to pick it up”.

Ramaphosa along with first lady Tshepo Motsepe met with the girls to personally thank them and to listen to requests they had for the president. 

Ramaphosa promised Baker and Cassiem that he will phone their school and arrange for toilets to be cleaned.

“I am going to make sure that they clean your bathrooms. I am going to phone,” Ramaphosa responded to the girls. 

Among other requests were that Ramaphosa ensures that everyone had a right to education and to do something to help decrease pollution in the country. 

Ramaphosa also shared some of his plans on early childhood education. 

“When we had that horrible system of Apartheid, many children did not go to school. Now many more children are going to school and we have made education compulsory,” he said.

He told the girls that he wanted children to start nursery school at the age of three. 

Ramaphosa said he was honoured to have been acknowledged by the pupils. 

“I also really appreciate [Aaliyah and Fatima] because they already know what they want the country to be like. They want us to build shelter, to build houses for everyone. It’s not usual that you hear this from a 10-year-old.

“These two young girls have really inspired me. They did not only save my life (by picking up the poster), they have also inspired me,” he said. 

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