Delegates snap up party regalia

EXCITEMENT was building yesterday as delegates arrived at the University of Johannesburg Soweto campus to collect their accreditation for the ANC’s national conference which starts at Nasrec today.

Long queues did not dampen the mood as delegates browsed the wares on sale and chatted to one another or took photos with their phones.

Spotted mingling in the crowd around the colourful accessory stalls was ANC Women’s League president and national executive committee member Bathabile Dlamini, who bought ANC regalia she said she would be wearing throughout the conference.

Asked about what she expected from the conference and whether she felt it would run smoothly, Dlamini politely turned us down, saying with a smile: “I will only give comment about the conference when it starts.”

Entrepreneurs look set to cash in through the sale of goods and services to the 5 000-plus delegates and media over the next few days.

We spoke to nine-year-old Bontle Rabothata, who is on holiday after passing Grade 3 at Ekurhuleni Primary School.

She helps her parents, Aaron and Priscilla, make beautiful necklaces and bracelets in the ANC’s colours of black, green and gold.

“I started doing these pieces last year with my parents,” she said.

“When I grow up, I would dearly love to be an entrepreneur in order to follow in my parents’ footsteps. They are my inspiration.”

Aaron Rabothata said he hoped they would earn R60 000 from their wares – more than they achieved during the ANC’s national policy conference earlier in the year.

He added that the family designed and sewed their own clothing, with prices ranging from R400 and R600 for dresses, T-shirts and jackets.

Rabothata said delegates loved to dress in ANC colours.

Jimmy Mhlabath, from Mbombela in Mpumalanga, also designs and sews his own wares, ranging from dresses to caps and jackets.

He pays people from his community to assist him and hopes to make R80 000.

Helping him was Zintle Mtshali, who said she would use the money she made to buy school clothes, stationery and Christmas gifts for her daughter, who is starting Grade 1 next year.