President Jacob Zuma will begin a tour of eight provinces this month to thank voters for returning the African National Congress to power and to inform them of the government’s programme, the party said on Monday.
The programme will stretch over two months and start with a visit to former president Nelson Mandela at his home in Houghton on
Saturday to congratulate him on his 91st birthday, said ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu.
Zuma will then visit elderly people at Ivory Park on the East Rand as part of Nelson Mandela Day, a new initiative which calls on
South Africans to do something charitable for 67 minutes — one for every year the struggle icon committed to politics.
Next Thursday will see Zuma and those ministers heading economic portfolios engage with black businessmen at the Sandton Convention Centre to explain how the party intends to implement its election promises amid the recession.
Two days later, the president will be in KwaZulu-Natal to tour the new soccer stadium built for the 2010 World Cup, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, and to address supporters of the ruling party in Mpumalanga township.
On August 11, Zuma will host an interfaith meeting at the Union Buildings with a view to establishing a new working group to advise him on religious matters.
Sokutu said it would comprise Jews, Muslims, Christians and leaders of other religious communities and be modelled on the economic working group advising the president that dates back to the Mbeki administration.
”It will meet with the president from time to time to share ideas affecting religious communities,” he said.
Zuma caused a stir when Rhema Church leader Ray McCauley endorsed his bid for the presidency from the pulpit at a service in the run-up to the April election. Some members of the congregation walked out in protest, and opposition leaders demanded, and were denied, the same reception by the church.
Sokutu declined to name any religious leaders who would be invited to the exploratory meeting, but said the list would reflect all faiths practised in South Africa.
From August 15, Zuma will address so-called Siyabonga rallies in the Free State, Northern Cape, Limpopo, North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape, where the last rally will take place on September 26.
Zuma has pledged to be accessible to the electorate and has installed a special hotline in the presidency to allow ordinary citizens to communicate their concerns. — Sapa