Grannies’ joy as Zuma goes

JUST as President Jacob Zuma resigned, Joan Swanepoel broke the family’s cardinal rule of not sending messages late at night.

It was already 11pm and her husband was asleep, but the 72-year-old sent a message to her sister, Jill Hallett.

“We jumped out of bed and we were just shouting to each other, ‘Zuma’s resigned.’ We were so excited,” says Swanepoel.

She walked to the kitchen and made a cup of tea, then did what she is famous for – she danced.

“But there was nobody there to celebrate with,” she laughs.

Last year, a video of Hallett, Swanepoel and their friend Debbie Breedt, captured during the countrywide marches against former President Jacob Zuma last year, went viral.

The trio were dubbed the “Zuma must go grannies”, for their trademark toyi-toyi.

“We’ve been waiting for it (Zuma’s resignation) for so long. We just feel relief and hope for the future. I know he (President Cyril Ramaphosa) has got a long way to go but we feel optimistic,” said Hallett yesterday. “There is hope again. There’s a feeling a little like with Madiba, a feeling of optimism again.”

Yesterday morning, the three held their own “Zexit” party at Hallett’s home. “We were trying to get into motion what we did previously,” says Hallett. “We were saying, Zuma, Zuma, bye bye Zuma, sharp. LaZuuuma! Now that he is gone, we feel hope for the future again. I’m happy and relieved.”

Hallett remembers how her son called her after last year’s video became a nationwide sensation.

“By the time the weekend was over, we had a million likes. We were phoned by newspapers and this person and that person. I still look at it and can’t understand what it was. Were we so terrible at toyi-toying? Was it our age?” she wondered, laughing aloud.