The ANC needs an overwhelming victory in the April 22 election so that it can push ahead with its priority of improving life for the poor, President Kgalema Motlanthe said at a rally in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape on Saturday.

Motlanthe told a crowd of about 3000 people at the Jabavu sports stadium that poverty would be overcome by an integrated approach, involving education and business development.

"It is not just about giving farms, we have to provide schools and develop business.

"That is why we need an overwhelming victory in these elections because these priorities need to be implemented," Motlanthe said.

Earlier, Motlanthe visited the Moses Mabhida township outside Kirkwood near Uitenhage, where he chatted with locals about problems in the area.

Motlanthe, who spoke through an Afrikaans translator, told a small group of mainly farm workers that they could thank the ANC for the houses that had been built for them since the party took power 15 years ago.

"If you are a person who lived in a mud house and was given an RDP house, then you can say thanks to the ANC," Motlanthe said.

He told the crowd that one of the best ways to overcome poverty was to build more clinics and schools as the construction of these would create more job opportunities.

"The ANC says people must walk less than five kilometers to clinics," Motlanthe said.

It was also important to develop South Africa?s rural areas, he said.

"The people must be able to plant and harvest themselves and sell what they pull out of the ground," he said.

Gqobana Sicelo, who is in charge of the ANC?s Eastern Cape election campaign, said he had been following Motlanthe to monitor voter patterns in the province.

Asked what he had picked up he said: "Voters do not have infinite loyalty. They will not stay patient with the ANC forever. We have to speed the delivery of services if we want to win elections in the future."