Port Elizabeth - President Jacob Zuma is billed as the only speaker to address the ANC's Siyanqoba rally at the Nelson Mandela Bay metro in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The president is currently campaigning for the ruling party in the Buffalo City metro and was expected to arrive in Port Elizabeth later on Friday.
The ANC said it would bus 40 000 people from all the metro's constituent cities (Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch) into the smaller Dan Qeqe Stadium in Zwide township for what has been dubbed a “celebration of the ANC's strength”.
Contractors were hard at work at the stadium on Friday morning, setting up the stage and the sound system; and checking that the portable toilets were properly set, among other things.
The presidency's security personnel also visited the stadium, where they conducted a sweep and left as quickly as they came.
The ANC is facing a stiff challenge from the DA in the region, and polls suggest the official opposition party has got a real chance of winning the ANC-governed metro, the Eastern Cape's largest and richest.
ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa said such surveys would be discredited come August 3. The election, he stressed, would not be determined by any surveys.
“We are confident of victory.”