A visit by Zanele Mbeki caused a flurry of activity on the floor of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) centre in Pretoria on Friday afternoon.
Flanked by IEC officials, the wife of former president Thabo Mbeki sat in the centre of the huge hall watching the election ”scoreboard”.
Dressed in a canary yellow jacket with matching earrings and the same diamante South African flag pin she wore when casting her ballot on Wednesday, she asked officials various questions while assessing both provincial and national results.
Against her calm demeanour, the media were piqued to a frenzy as they gawked at her and took photographs.
Refusing to address journalists, she did however go on a walk about to meet various political parties.
Arriving at the A-Party station she asked them what the A stood for, but one of the party officials appeared too overwhelmed to answer.
She also greeted the African National Congress desk and got hugs from the United Democratic Movement’s Bantu Holomisa and the African People’s Convention’s Themba Godi.
She appeared keen to chat to the PAC.
While Congress of the People officials sat in eager anticipation, their desk was not one of the stops on her way.
One man kissed her hand as she circulated the hall before being whisked away to a restricted away.
One foreign journalist who had keenly been following the media pack leaping on her heels, finally asked a local reporter: ”Excuse me, excuse me, who is that?”
An equally brightly dressed Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also arrived at the centre on Friday afternoon. — Sapa