More than 80 000 ANC supporters gather at Soweto stadium - Makhura
Johannesburg - More than 80 000 ANC supporters had gathered at the FNB Stadium ahead of the party’s Gauteng manifesto launch by early afternoon on Saturday, Premier David Makhura said.
Makhuru took to the stage shortly after 13:00 to tell the crowd that 80 128 people had gone through the turnstiles and that 15 000 were still outside in buses waiting to come in to the 94 000-seater venue in Soweto.
Earlier, Makhura, who is also ANC Gauteng deputy chairperson, said that the organisers were “very confident that we will still fill up the stadium".
The party’s provincial branch has even had a social media campaign with the hashtag #fillupFNBStadium trending weeks in advance of the rally.
This followed the national manifesto launch flop in Port Elizabeth in April, when the party vowed that 110 000 people would attend, but only managed to attract about 42 000 people to the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, which looked embarrassingly empty.