THE BOOED PRESIDENT.
By Greenwell Nyirenda.
On 10th December 2013, I was seated on the terraces of nearly 95,000 – capacity FNB Stadium filled to its maximum. The stadium which is located at Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johannesburg received hundreds of thousands of South Africans from all the Provinces, thousands from Southern Africa and Africa and a hundreds from overseas including the 90 head of states among them USA President Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and including our Zambian Vice President Guy Scott.
We had reached the stadium at around 06;30 a.m. , despite that we came many miles away, from Waterkloof area of Pretoria, Elarduspark to be specific using inner roads avoiding bigger roads like R-21 and other vast freeways which were closed to accommodate dignitaries and the Funeral convoy carrying the casket of Nelson Mandela
Well vuvuzela reverberations echoed boostele and morale across the stadium which was largely clad in green, gold and black – the ANC colors. It was ecstatic. Kirk Franklyn, Mafikozolo and other musical performers were rolling it on a large stage.
The extra-large Screen kept on showing which VIP ‘trooped’ in at what time. It was like the UN general Assembly. And crowds kept going wild, boisterous, loud and jubilant as they show the screens showed the Rev Jesse Jackson, Raul Castrol, Mama Graca and Winnie, Former Presidents of SA and especially on two kenyas – ‘Uhuru and Barack’, well one is half Kenyan and other VIPS.
But when the host President Jacob G Zuma entered the stadium, the whole stadium grinned and jeered him. Embarrassing! I felt it. Zuma was booed when the screens showed him arriving with his two wives, Bongi Ngema and Thobeka Madiba, and twice again when he was introduced by program director Cyril Ramaphosa, his Vice then.
On 16 June 2017, President Zuma was again booed as he addressed an official Youth Day rally in Ventersdorp in North West. It said a group of students chanted “Zuma must fall”.
Well Zuma later went on and faced more embarrassing moments especially when he would be ridiculed and unpalatables hurled against him – not taking away any of the all the allegations, I believed the bullying and booing was never appropriate.
But in a way, he nattily never bothered and went on. He would never issue a threat, him his surrogates or followers.