With his trademark song Awulethe umshini wami (Bring me my machine gun), and an apology for not being fluent in Sotho, President Jacob Zuma spent time with residents of Botshabelo, 50km outside Bloemfontein, in his first interaction with ordinary citizens this year.
Yesterday’s message was brief: everyone had to come to town to help celebrate the ANC’s 100th birthday at its founding site, Mangaung. And the crowd, which started small at around 100 people but quickly swelled as word spread after Zuma’s 16-vehicle convoy snaked into the township, erupted into cheers and cellphone snapshotting.
Botshabelo’s dusty, potholed streets contrasted sharply with the buffing given the Free State capital, where streets have been cleaned, faded road markings retouched, lampposts decked with posters and bunting.
There were cheers as Zuma, in dark trousers and a long-sleeved white top, emerged from his black sedan to mount a mobile stage, encircled by his bodyguards and security detail. People had waited almost two hours near the faded façade of a Shoprite complex bustling with shoppers and traders selling everything from livestock to deep-fried street snacks.
“We are celebrating the birthday of the ANC in a big way,” Zuma said. “We are the oldest organisation on the continent. Many organisations have been created and many have perished, have died, have collapsed. Not the ANC.”
He said his visit was to explain what made the ANC different. “We are not just a political party. We are a movement… of the people. The ANC is the organisation that could defeat the most powerful regime, the apartheid regime.”
Clearly enjoying the adulation of the crowd, Zuma delighted his audience with some fancy footwork, performing a soft-shoe shuffle.
Joining him on stage were senior ANC national executive committee members, including Free State Premier Ace Magashule, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize, Northern Cape Premier Hazel Jenkins, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and local ANC officials.
People - mostly women - queuing at the local social security office watched Zuma’s performance from where they stood. Drawing closer would have meant losing their places in the queue threading into the dark and airless offices.
It was a quick in-and-out for the president, who gave only a smile and a wave as he left. He had been due in the township on Thursday, but what was explained as confusion between the Presidency and Luthuli House over diaries meant he was delayed.
Residents had earlier raised concerns with him, as they had been doing during door-to-door campaigns by other ANC leaders, including Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
“They take the opportunity of seeing you there to take up issues,” Zuma said. “They get very confident when they see someone senior.”
He also addressed a mini-rally on knowing one’s history. “It went very well.”
Meanwhile, delegates accepted in good humour a massive logjam at the accreditation centre at Free State University on Thursday.
Leah Maele, 50, from Mangaung, shared a cold drink with friends in the shade - and her excitement.
“I am looking forward to seeing all the presidents from other countries - and also President Zuma,” she said.
Asked what she hoped the next 100 years would bring for the ANC, Maele said the party she’d joined as a 17-year-old schoolgirl should “create jobs and (address) poverty”.
Kadibone Nkone, 52, also from Mangaung, felt education was the priority: “You can’t give someone a job without education.” Nkone said she was a lifelong member who’d been “born in the ANC”.
Rebecca Kgolokwane, 47, from Dealsville, Free State, said tensions within the ANC were “temporary”, and would be a thing of the past once Zuma delivered the party’s statement tomorrow, setting out its programme of action for the next 12 months.
Sellers of ANC paraphernalia, including T-shirts bearing the faces of its past presidents - ironically, made in China - did a brisk trade. - Saturday Argus