The ANC’s 8 January birthday rally will be hosted at the Khayelitsha Stadium in Cape Town on 11 January, which will also be one of their smallest rallies in 30 years, Cape {town} Etc reports.
The stadium for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party’s 113th birthday has a capacity of 2 000 people, which has 41 000 fewer seats than the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga, where the ANC’s birthday rally was held earlier this year.
In addition, the Khayelitsha Stadium has 20 000 fewer seats than the Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein in the Free State, where the ANC’s birthday rally was hosted last year, according to the City Press via News24.
The party’s rally in 2019 had more seating than the Khayelitsha Stadium when the decision was made to spread the event over 11 regions in KwaZulu-Natal.
In 2015, The ANC’s rally at the Cape Town Stadium had seatings for 55 000 people.
Fikile Mbalula, secretary-general of the ANC, said that the Khayelitsha Stadium was their first choice for the rally because that was ‘where the ANC’s voters are’.
Election analyst Dawie Scholtz stated that about 67% of Khayelitsha’s 200 000 voters had marked their ballots for the ANC during the elections earlier this year.
This, however, is less than in the 2021 municipal elections, which was 73%, and the 2019 general election, which was 81%.
The 8 January celebrations in 2025 will also be the first time in a decade that the ANC will hold its birthday rally in the Western Cape.
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Picture: OJ Koloti / Gallo Images
