Madiba mobbed

2004-04-06 16:09

Durban - The ANC's plan to take KwaZulu-Natal in the April 14 poll received a shot in the arm when former president Nelson Mandela campaigned for the party in the Durban area on Tuesday.

Mandela, who addressed rallies in Clermont and Mt Edgecombe, attracted wild screams and cheering from hundreds of people who turned up to listen to his election message.

Mandela urged all South Africans to vote for the ANC, saying the party was for the people and had done much to uplift all communities.

He said South Africans had themselves experienced how the ANC-led government and President Thabo Mbeki had worked tirelessly to improve the lives of all citizens, regardless of their backgrounds.

Mandela once again backed Mbeki's rule of the country, saying no other leader had accomplished more for South Africa than Mbeki had.

He said Mbeki had made a call on South Africans at the late transport minister Dullah Omar's funeral to honour the memory of Omar by exercising their right to vote.

Mandela said he was taking Mbeki's call a step further by asking South Africans to also honour former intelligence minister Joe Nhlanhla who was not able to participate in the ANC's election drive due to a long illness.

Nhlanhla, like Omar, was an honest, principled person who had made the ANC a great organisation.

Mandela said South Africans had to give substance to the country's 10 years of democracy by voting.

"We are expecting you... to turn out in your masses to recommit your faith (to) democracy as you had done in 1994."

The election rally at Terror Lekota stadium in Clermont drew a large crowd.

Before Mandela spoke, ANC supporters dressed in party regalia, danced to music blasting from speakers attached to a party truck, while children practised their gymnastic skills and karate-kicked each other on a soccer field.

'Simply the best'

At the Mt Edgecombe activity ground, rally organisers played Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" and when Mandela arrived, he received a Hindu welcoming and yellow garland flowers were placed around his neck.

A large oil painting of Madiba by a local Durban artist was presented to him.

Asked why she had done a painting of Mandela, Devika Pillay told Sapa: "I have always been painting figures who share the same passion as me. He is my idol." It took Pillay three weeks to complete the painting.

Madiba 'chopped down apartheid'

The World Karate Federation also honoured Mandela with a certificate giving him a 10th Dan, which is the highest level one can reach in the martial art.

"They are giving him the 10th Dan because Madiba chopped down apartheid," ANC provincial leader S'bu Ndebele said at the gathering.

The election is expected to be closely contested between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party in KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC does not enjoy majority support.

- SAPA