Taking a flyer with Zille is an eye-opener
South Africa’s own iron lady makes breakfast of a dawn trip to Mthatha, writes Jan-Jan Joubert
AT a quarter past six in the morning at this time of the year in Cape Town, the sun is just peering over the horizon, highlighting a white aircraft parked at a hangar adjacent to the city’s airport.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is already inside the hangar’s waiting area, making coffee in between reading newspapers.
Newspaper readers are a diverse bunch. Some read the papers from front to back, neatly leaving the order intact. Zille is not one of them. After she has finished reading a newspaper, it is well and truly read. But the Western Cape leader does make a valiant effort to restore order before sending them back to her husband, Professor Johann Maree, at the Western Cape premier’s official residence, Leeuwenhof.
“He can’t stand it when the newspapers are a mess,” she says, and tells how he made her biryani the previous night when she returned home from another day of election campaigning in Gauteng.
“Heaven has a special place for that man,” she comments.
But today we are not going to heaven. Instead, we are flying to Mthatha in the Eastern Cape on a chartered flight in a six-seat plane — Zille, her aide, Phumzile van Damme, photographer Shelley Christians and me.
Today, I will be afforded a glimpse of just what a day on the election campaign is really like. So come fly with me. We take off just before seven. The plane is small, really small. It consists of two seats facing two more, with another row of two at the back. Because we are only four passengers, I face Zille and Christians faces Van Damme. If you have long legs like mine, it is impossible not to invade everyone else’s space.
We take off and climb . . . fast. With no prior warning, no experience of chartered flying and my own pile of newspapers on my lap, I stupidly forgot to strap myself in. I have to hook my arms around my chair and hold on for dear life so as not to fall onto the premier of the Western Cape and possibly injure her surprisingly slight frame.
As the plane levels out and a major social faux pas is avoided, she collects my newspapers — fallen during the climb to the once neat aircraft floor — to finish the parts she has not read.
Disconcertingly, the two pilots have taped over the windows. I am told it is because we are flying directly into the sun, but it is hard to escape the feeling that we are flying blind. At least all the instruments are working . . . I hope.
A lively discussion of current South African journalism and journalists ensues as Van Damme hands us the best breakfast I have had in the air.
What is said on the plane stays on the plane. Suffice it to say that Zille clearly has high expectations of those
The two pilots have taped over the windows ... it is hard to escape the feeling that we are flying blind
left in the profession she once practised — and that those expectations are not often met.
Also, she clearly relishes a debate and one should never expect to cross her unchallenged.
Breakfast done, she works on the speaking notes provided by DA MP and close confidant Geordin Hill-Lewis. She translates parts of it into Xhosa, often asking the advice of Van Damme, whose mother tongue is Zulu.
More discussion: former president Thabo Mbeki, the poor state of journalism, HIV/Aids, the poor state of journalism, election prospects, the poor state of journalism, party-hopper Grant Pascoe, the poor state of journalism, SABC censorship, the very poor state of journalism there.
Our descent towards Mthatha begins as the beautiful Transkei countryside unfolds beneath us.
We touch down and Zille is whisked away by local DA luminaries to meet King Dalindyebo of the Thembu clan.
Point to ponder: Is King Dalindyebo a recent convert to the DA cause, or is the DA a recent convert to his?
Christians and I move on to a hall at Mthatha’s Walter Sisulu University. It is a drawn-out wait. Royal greetings take a long time, apparently. I count 1 215 people in the hall.
The meeting goes well. The king endorses the DA and distances him- self from the ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters, as expected. He also calls for free political activity. Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip and recent party-hoppers from the Congress of the People, Nosimo Balindlela and Nqaba Bhanga, make rousing speeches, as does Zille. It is a noisy affair.
Christians and I return to the airport as the DA folks leave for a lunch of samp and spinach. They arrive after their meal and we take off for Cape Town. This time I am strapped in — Zille is safe.
More discussion of politics, the Mthatha meeting and election prospects. More reading of newspapers. A sundowner.
We land at the hangar in Cape Town. We thank the excellent pilots. Zille leaves with her security detail.
I drive home, exhausted. I get there at eight, fix dinner and sleep to be ready for the next day.
For such are the requirements of election politics: Today may be gone with the wind, but, as Scarlett O’Hara remarked, after all, tomorrow is another day.