Hordes pour in for Zuma speech in party’s final rally
CEDRICK Netshitongwe and Rotondwa Mugwesi lay sprawled on the grass outside FNB Stadium where the ANC held its “final push” rally.
The two were exhausted. They had woken up at 3am to make it to the rally on time from Mpumalanga, showing their commitment to the party whose history had earned their votes the day they were born.
“We love the ANC,” said Netshitongwe, a member of the born-free generation. “It’s the only party that brings us together.”
He likes the DA and EFF, but, like others at the rally, his loyalty comes from the party’s anti-apartheid legacy, and he could never imagine backing an opposition party.
Netshitongwe was part 100 000 ANC supporters who gathered to hear President Jacob Zuma speak, three days before what is expected to be the country’s most contested elections since 1994.
Dancers and entertainers enthralled the crowd from 9am until Zuma took the stage nearly five hours later. By early afternoon, the stands were spilling over with fervent supporters. Twenty years on, the faithful said they felt grateful to the ANC for the gains made since 1994.
Asked about the Nkandla scandal, Steve Ramoshoba, 40, a construction entrepreneur, defended Zuma, claiming any corruption was the fault of the committee in charge of the upgrades to his estate.
Draped in a Nelson Mandela flag, Princess Matshebelele said South Africans should stick with what they know.
“We have our own houses, we have jobs.
“Jacob Zuma is a decent man, he’s just confused like anyone else,” she said. IF THE DA’s family concert on the historic Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown yesterday appeared low key, rest your soul, because the party brought out the bling on Saturday with the slickest political show South Africa has ever seen.
With echoes of US campaigns – especially that of then presidential hopeful Barack Obama – the DA “brought it” to the people with teleprompters, chants of “We can win” and “Change”, and a whole lot more.
They unleashed hip-hop muso Ifani, who reinterpreted his hit song Mili with “give me more jobs and then I can make a mili” and Mi Casa’s J-something’s sensual jika-majika’d. PALESA RADEBE AND SHANTI ABOOBAKER A 21-YEAR-OLD mother attended the DA “We Can Win Concert” rally with her three-month-old baby at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown yesterday.
Mbali Luthuli didn’t let the scorching sun or the baby deter her from going to the concert to show her support for the DA.
“My presence is needed here, for me I need change in the future. Right now, the ANC is different.
“We don’t see any change in employment and education, I’m voting for opportunity,” Luthuli said.
The unemployed mother said she could not continue with her
The significance could not be lost on even the most cynical observer.
The DA has grown – exponentially – and it is sometimes a black party.
The Coca-Cola Dome, where the closing DA Gauteng rally was held, has a 19 000-seat capacity, and there were thousands of black Gauteng supporters who donned their Mmusi Maimane campaign T-shirts.
Maimane is handsome, like Obama, and the T-shirts are epic.
Last weekend, the party held its Western Cape closing rally in the Bellville Velodrome.
Bellville was a different beast from Northgate – it was an all-coloured people affair studies after the National Student Financial Aid Scheme failed to continue funding her this year. The scheme told her there was not enough money for everyone.
“It’s important for me to vote for change. My vote will change how things are currently. We have to celebrate the future of the DA,” said Luthuli.
The square was covered in blueand-white banners and the stage had a massive poster of DA Gauteng premiership candidate Mmusi Maimane and Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.
DA Youth member Kefilwe Mphiriwe said the high turnout was due to the fact that buses had transported people from as far as Mpumalanga and Gauteng’s neighbouring provinces.
Most of those who attended with few white DA supporters.
In Mitchells Plain, born-andbred Emo Adams performed goema, with roots in its history of slavery and minstrel music, while the Cape Flats’ favourites ranged from Bob Marley to Justin Bieber.
Party leader Helen Zille took to the stage with karaoke, performing the Cape DA supporters’ favourite DA-Zille, song Koekie Loekie.
But yesterday in Kliptown, the DA wound down its campaign before Wednesday’s big push.
They brought out folk singer Bongeziwe Mabandla and their own superstars: Maimane, the DA’s Gauteng premier candidate; parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko; and party youth leader Mbali Ntuli.
Why 3-month old baby was at concert
were oblivious of the fact that three buses carrying DA supporters were stoned on their way to the rally.
Maimane said police were interviewing hundreds of DA members after two buses were attacked with stones between Alexandra and the venue.
“A driver was hospitalised and three buses were badly damaged. One bus was so heavily stoned that it is no longer usable,” he said.
The bus company owner, who would not give his name, said he did not know if the incident was politically motivated and whether ANC supporters were involved.
”The ANC are clearly panicking at the prospect of losing Gauteng. But there is no excuse for endangering the lives of our supporters,” Maimane said.