Durban - With less than a week to the hotly contested local government elections, the ANC pulled out the proverbial yellow carpet with its big wigs at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville campus on Wednesday – calling on students to vote next week.
With Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula apparently sick and unavailable for campaign duty on Wednesday, AU chairwoman and ANC NEC member Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and a few celebrities took to the campus to paint it green and yellow during a pre-election blitz.
Selfies with the party leaders were plenty, particularly with TV star Deli “Sarah” Malinga , former soapie Generations actress and kwaito musician T’zozo.
The group blitzed through the campus and even took their campaign to the students who were at residences.
The softly spoken Dlamini Zuma did not perform the dab dance of fame as has been the tune with President Jacob Zuma, nor did she sing, but she did dish out ANC T-shirts, listened to students, took many pictures and urged students to vote on August 3.
She did try her hand – miserably – to play pool at the cafeteria where some students were engaged in a game.
But one student took the walkabout to express concern to the leader about the diminishing opportunities for science students and called on the leader to change their fortunes.
The student, Siqwayi Khumalo, a science PhD candidate, expressed concern that science (applied maths, biochemistry and chemistry) – unlike the health sciences – was being underexposed and told the leader that many talented students were forced to pursue teaching careers as unemployment in the sector was high.
“Science students end up doing PGCE (teaching certificate) just because they need money, not because they are passionate about teaching.
“You find the matric pass rate declining as a result, because they don’t love what they are doing, they are doing it because of the money, because in the science fraternity there are no jobs.
“I am doing my PhD not because I love to… people that are highly employed are in the health sciences.
“Now to our parents it looks like we don’t want to go to work, but there are no jobs,” he told Dlamini Zuma.
Dlamini Zuma took Khumalo’s details, but said she was “not promising anything”.
“I am not promising anything, but please give me your details so I can talk and hear what is happening,” she said.
One of the celebrities, who had her fair share of selfies with the students, Malinga, said she would vote at an uMlazi branch and was supporting Durban mayoral candidate Zandile Gumede.
“It is highly important to have leaders that are women, my involvement is to encourage people to accept that we have a woman who we can listen to and who knows the challenges faced by women and that she is firm and can take Durban forward,” she said.