ANC conference kicks off with battle of the songs 

The first day of the ANC’s much anticipated policy conference kicked off with a battle of songs between the Eastern Cape and a much larger group, made up of several provinces, which tried to drown out their call for a “change”.

It all began with various groups entering the Nasrec Expo Centre’s hall six, singing traditional songs from the party’s liberation days – “Oliver Tambo bamb’isandla sam [Oliver Tambo hold my hand]” and “ANC kuzo lawula wena, nalapha kuzo lawula wena [ANC you will rule, even here you will rule]”. 

However, as more and more groups started to fill the hall, songs celebrating current particular leaders could be heard from the different regions.

The North West group sang a song praising its premier, Supra Mahumapelo – “silamulele Supra [Help us Supra]” – while a louder, larger group on the other side of the hall began singing “Zuma, Zuma wethu“.

The Eastern Cape branch then began singing “Thuma mina Oliver Tambo, siyababona bayoyika [Send me Oliver Tambo, we can see that these ones are scared]”.

While singing this, the group made soccer gestures with their hands, signalling a change was needed, and began moving toward the large pro-Zuma group from KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Women’s League.