Calling for freedom anew at Walter Sisulu Square

The final major gathering for the DA was a #WeCanWin concert. at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto. Built some ten years ago to commemorate the Congress of the People (no relation to the political party Cope formed in 2008) who gathered here 1955 to sign the Freedom Charter, it is now a national heritage site and called Freedom Square in official circles. Today, some 7 000 DA supporters brought a new meaning to the word freedom, calling for a release from the bondage of a corrupt, venal and crony ANC at the polls on Wednesday.

For me, the venue has a special significance for in 2006 and 2007 I was part of the team at Adele Lucas Promotions who hosted the Soweto Festival there, attracting a different kind of audience who nevertheless enjoyed the monumental setting as a place to have fun and listen to great music.

I took the photo above and this one below from exactly the same spot, but eight years apart. Today we could not have staged the festival because the trees have matured so there would have been nowhere to put our stage.

Where today the crowd gathered to watch the music we erected three marquees for over 200 exhibition stands, covering an area 65 x 90 metres

I arrived just as Helen Zille was ending her speech and bumped into Jonathan Moakes, CEO of the party, and Jamie Turkington who has been seconded from his position of Director of Communications in the Western Cape Provincial Government to head up Mmusi Maimane's communications campaign in Gauteng. They were both in an upbeat mood but looking forward to Thursday! 

A DA newsletter sent out this morning had this to say:

"We are hosting this concert to thank our thousands of supporters and activists who have tirelessly worked to campaign for the DA in this election campaign. They have worked day and night to spread the DA’s message of stopping corruption and creating more jobs.

Acts will include: The Muffinz, Kwaito Officers, Glen Lewis, Kwesta, Bongeziwe Mabandla, Ntomb’OmXhosa, Plasha, Gary & the Democrats, DJ Juice, Teardrops, Phat Jack and X-Man & Dangerbot."

After an hour or so in the hot sun I headed off home to write this post and prepare for the next three days. I have spent the past two weeks training DA activists in Soweto West in how to man a voting station. We have 120 in our constituency so there is a mammoth task of ensuring all are properly manned by activists who know how to oversee the voting process and spot any malpractice (intentional or otherwise) by IEC officials and agents from other parties. 

Every activist is given a pack of containing sheets used to count ballot boxes and ballot papers, tape, pens/pencils and other stuff. I must have trained over 300 activists in 7 sessions taking around 2 hours each. At the start of each session I asked those who had worked at an election before to put their hands up and only a handful did, a sign that the DA's footprint has increased massively since 2011. Let's hope this level of support is reflected in the vote on Wednesday.