The DA's 6 Million Real Jobs march

Today was the DA's 6 Million Real Jobs march, which has stirred up a lot of controversy in the media and the ANC who regarded it as provocative. The DA went ahead even in the face of a court application by the ANC for a protection order, which was even more of a publicity stunt than they claimed the march itself was - the DA were never aiming to cause damage to limb or property, but the ANC made it seem like war had been declared.

A very large number of DA activists gathered at a piece of open ground near the Westgate Rea Vaya station on the corner of Miriam Makeba and Anderson Streets, where the march began just after 11. I saw many familiar faces from the Sandton Constituency, as well as from Soweto, and there was lots of back slapping among the candidates ranked high enough on the list to stand a good chance of getting a seat. I bumped into Phindo Sibisi who along with her sister Zamo has worked at Adele Lucas Promotions on several Soweto Festivals over the years - she is now the Constituency Operations Manager for Dion George in Midrand and loving every minute of it.

Every DA public representative and prospective candidate in Gauteng, and activists from all over the province, were present, and I've never seen such a sea of blue, apart from the gathering at Mary Fitzgerald Square last year which was the first show of strength by the "new DA" which is now dominated by black supporters. Never again can the ANC or other critics criticise it for being a "white" party - this is clearly nonsense! The only white leader in evidence on the lorry was Helen Zille.

Helen Zille, Lindiwe Mazibuko, Wilmot James, Mmusi Maimane, Mbali Ntuli, John Moody and others crammed onto the decorated lorry that formed the march vanguard and off we went. As we turned the corner into Marshall Street spectators gathered in the windows of Zurich Re and cheered us on. There was a tremendous atmosphere with the DA supporters singing and dancing, waving flags and banners and holding hands as we formed a phalanx right across the street. Everything went very smoothly, and after a few blocks we stopped and Helen made a speech which we could not hear in the din.

Suddenly there were two loud bangs and a cloud of smoke appeared to my left, and the marshals ran around directing us south, away from the pre-arranged route which was supposed to take us to Beyers Naude Square (the final destination of Luthuli House had been abandoned because of the potential reaction by unruly ANC elements.)  I think it could have been Rissik Street, but anyway we then turned right again down Anderson Street.

To our right, police had blocked off the streets two blocks down and there were small groups of ANC and EFF supporters clad in yellow and red garb looking menacing.

 A few minutes later I saw my first (and only) brick hurtling through the air as the crowd scattered. The police were onto the perpetrator within seconds and bundled him and a few other trouble makers into what looked like an Nyala vehicle. All very exciting but not too threatening - the police and marshals seemed to have everything under control.

After nearly an hour walking the crowd reassembled at Westgate the leadership revved us up with stirring speeches - Helen Zille declaring that as there is only job standing in the way of creating 6 million real jobs, and that is Jacob Zuma's job! "There is only one person who must lose his job so that we can start growing the economy for real jobs and that one person is Jacob Zuma!" she went on to huge cheers. "But you can fire Jacob Zuma, the people can fire Jacob Zuma. You hire with your vote and you fire him with your vote. And if you don't think Jacob Zuma is doing a real job then fire him on the 7th of May!"

The election campaign has well and truly got underway and less than three months from now we will be heading to a newly elected Parliament.