Improved housing and shopping facilities were among the promises made when President Thabo Mbeki hit the campaign trial on the Cape Flats on Tuesday, ahead of the March 1 municipal election.
First stop was the home of 82-year-old Macassar resident Lilly Jansen in Krymekaar Street — the oldest street in the low-income suburb south of the N2 highway near Somerset West.
Jansen had clearly been up early in anticipation of Mbeki’s visit, and while waiting on her veranda for his arrival, told a South African Press Association reporter at the scene: ”I am so happy and fortunate that the president is visiting me.”
She also confided she intended to ask Mbeki ”if I can fly on an aeroplane”.
When the president’s motorcade arrived, he was mobbed by a cheering crowd with many schoolchildren, as he made his way to the front door.
Stopping frequently to shake the sea of proffered hands and exchange a word or two, a smiling Mbeki’s progress was closely watched by his security contingent.
Mbeki greeted Jansen with a warm hug, and went inside the living room — packed to capacity with Jansen’s relatives and friends, and with journalists and security officers — for refreshments.
During their chat, he introduced Jansen to the African National Congress’ candidate for the ward, Judy-Ann Stevens, and urged Jansen to support her in the election. ”Definitely,” she beamed.
Macassar, a predominantly Afrikaans-speaking area with 13 639 registered voters, was won by the ANC in the 2000 local government election.
As Mbeki was preparing to leave, Jansen thanked him profusely for the visit, got up from her seat, and danced an impromptu jig for him.
At the nearby Macassar High School, Mbeki told residents the problem of people having to live in shacks in the backyards of homes in the area had to be addressed.
”Yes, we’re still waiting!” chirped a voice from the back of the crowd.
Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, who accompanied Mbeki, said there was much development on the cards for the area.
”Lots of development is coming into this area. A housing project and a shopping centre, about to come,” she said.
On that, Mbeki said the area needed its own shopping centre and adequate schools too.
Pointing to the children lining a fence, he said: ”That’s our future — those children.”
Earlier, Mfeketo apologised to the crowd for her lack of Afrikaans.
”Ek praat kombuis Afrikaans,” she said, and promptly switched to English.
Residents in the area told journalists that drug dealing was a huge problem in Macassar, with shebeens selling dagga and the highly addictive tik, which has become the drug of choice among Cape Flats addicts.
Mbeki was also scheduled to visit Delft, Guguletu, Athlone, and Langa, on his whistlestop tour on Tuesday.
Mbeki’s cavalcade then moved on to Delft South, where the president spoke to residents from the back of a truck parked in a field.
He said that Delft, a mixed suburb with mainly black and coloured residents, was ”leading the country in terms of the society we want to build”.
He cautioned people to ignore ”politicians who are trying to divide our people”, and lashed out at the opposition Democratic Alliance election posters calling on people to ”take back” Cape Town.
”The city belongs to all South Africans, black and white,” he said.
Mbeki is also scheduled to visit Gugulethu, Athlone, and Langa on his whistlestop tour later on Tuesday. – Sapa