The song Awulethu umshini wam (Bring Me My Machine [Gun]) echoed through Pritchard Street on Monday morning as policemen unpacked riot shields ahead of Jacob Zuma’s Johannesburg High Court rape judgement.
Supporters held aloft handmade model rifles and sang the controversial song in the cold morning air.
One, made of wood, bore the lettering ”umshini wam” — boy scout. The bearer shouted out: ”Thabo Mbeki the gat”.
Another replica of a rifle was an AK-47 made from cardboard.
Most of the Zuma supporters were reluctant to talk to the media.
Bhabha Kwela from Durban arrived in Johannesburg early on Monday morning. He had travelled with a group of Zuma supporters in three buses.
He said he was at the court to pledge his support for the ANC deputy president.
”I need him to be released so that he can continue serving the people.”
A woman carried a placard reading: ”Rape is reported at SAPS, why NIA now? Conspiracy.”
Stressing their Zulu culture, dressmakers Emma Nkosi and Nozizwe Mpangane, wore homemade clothes made of fabric in African National Congress colours which they proudly said they had made themselves.
”This is about our culture,” said Nkosi.
The two had spent the night at the vigil at the Central Methodist Church adjacent to the Johannesburg High Court. They were from KwaThema, near Springs.
Both wore traditional Zulu isicholo headgear, also homemade. Among the singers who marched back and forth in front of the court, like swimmers doing repeated laps in a pool, were others draped in blankets and towels.
T-shirts bore pro-Zuma messages. Some were the legacy of Sunday’s concert where they were sold for R75 each to raise money for Zuma’s legal costs.
Another T-shirt bore a picture of former Mozambican President Samora Machel.
By 7am, the crowd had been restricted to the opposite side of Pritchard Street where they had earlier exchanged heated words with the police, singing a song which translated ”Shit, shit, none of this stuff”.
A heavy police presence remained outside the court.
Meanwhile, the Oneinnine campaign to raise awareness about rape started setting up its posters outside the court on Monday morning.
Spokesperson Delphine Serumaga said the campaign would shift its focus to the conviction rate for rape, which is between six and seven percent.
Tied to the poles outside the court in Pritchard Street were red boards bearing the words ”not guilty” with only two bearing the word ”guilty”.
”Today will let us know how far we have gone,” said Serumaga.
”I believe there has been success because it proves nobody’s above the law.”
A 31-year-old HIV-positive woman, who considers herself a lesbian, alleges that on November 2 last year, the former deputy president raped her in the guest room of his Johannesburg home while she was staying overnight during a family crisis.
New life in exile
Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reported that security bosses are preparing Zuma’s rape accuser for a life in exile in another country, out of fear for her life in South Africa.
The decision to move the woman abroad followed a ”high-level” security assessment undertaken by police officials, intelligence services and the witness protection programme.
Security around the alleged rape victim has been so tight that she was not placed in the witness protection programme out of fear for her safety, the newspaper reported. – Sapa