Port Elizabeth - Throngs of ANC supporters are being bussed to the Dan Qeqe Stadium in Zwide in Nelson Mandela Bay for the party’s provincial Siyanqoba rally.
President Jacob Zuma is expected to deliver the keynote address. It is the ANC’s last big attempt to woo voters in the Eastern Cape ahead of the hotly-contested municipal elections on August 3.
Although it was raining on Saturday, the wet weather did not seem to deter the supporters singing struggle songs on their way to the stadium.
ANC spokespeople have characterised the rally as the ruling party's show of force as it pulls out all the stops to retain the metro.
Current mayor and ANC mayoral candidate Danny Jordaan has admitted on many platforms that the metro was drowning under a mountain of corruption when he was "parachuted in" in May last year.
The municipality, comprising Port Elizabeth, Uitengage and Despatch, has since turned the corner, and now has about R2-billion in cash holdings, according to Jordaan, who is also president of the SA Football Association.
The ruling party is confident it will retain the metro, despite the fact that it has been losing support in the region. The DA believes it stands a real chance at winning the metro.
The ANC says it has hired 500 buses to bring about 40 000 supporters to the stadium.