Cape Town - After receiving ecstatic welcomes in parts of the Western Cape over the past few days, President Jacob Zuma had an altogether cooler reception when he ventured into DA country on Thursday - the Liberty Promenade Mall in the heart of Mitchells Plain.
ANC supporter Harry Mentor, 72, whose efforts to hand out ANC brochures to shoppers were met with many shaken heads, said Mitchells Plain was a “lion’s den” for the president.
But at first glance, it seemed that Zuma was being welcomed with open arms, a ring of yellow T-shirted shouting and smiling people forming around him. However, as the crowd squeezed through the mall, they were met with icy stares and disinterested faces.
“Zuma can f**k off now,” said a shopper wielding his trolley like a weapon to part the shouting crowds as the president posed with a mother and her child.
Zuma and senior members of the party are in town to celebrate the ANC’s 103rd anniversary on Thursday. They are hoping to be welcomed by a sea of yellow in a packed Cape Town Stadium.
But on Thursday the yellow was more muted. Police, armed with submachine guns, scanned the mall, holding up their hands when supporters pushed up to close to Zuma. “What are you doing?” shouted Rashaad Davids at Zuma’s supporters as they walked past him. “What has this guy ever done for you?”
Davids, 42, had been shopping at the mall when he stumbled into the middle of the president’s walkabout. “It’s just a publicity stunt,” he said disgustedly.
As a DA supporter, he said, nobody trusted the president whom they had watched “waste all their money”.
“He doesn’t belong here, he has got nothing to do with us. Look,” he pointed at the other shoppers walking quickly past the crowd, “they don’t care.”
A scowling Michelle Williams emerged from the crowd with her family, and said: “It’s all just publicity.” “Nothing but publicity,” chirped her friend.
