THE reception that President Jacob Zuma got at the FNB Stadium on Tuesday was surprising for its brazen disregard for the dignity and sobriety of the event — after all, this was the big memorial service for president Nelson Mandela.
It was an opportunity for the world to come together to remember the life of an extraordinary man, but it descended into farce on several occasions as the loud crowd followed its own programme of jubilant singing, cheering their favourites and jeering those who weren’t in their good books.
Nobody got it like Zuma did. In fact, nobody else did. The booing was all for him.
These intrusions were beyond outrageous, and thankfully did not dampen the spirits of the thousands of South Africans who went to the stadium, even if the rain did. But from the perspective of television, they painted an unpleasant picture.
Speaking to the media after the service, African National Congress (ANC) spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the booing caught the ANC completely off guard.
But the president would not be unfamiliar with this kind of conduct, having sat in party meetings where the crowd did exactly the same thing, except to his enemies. We were in Gauteng, which lends itself to the thought that this could have been an orchestrated campaign to embarrass Zuma at a time when he wouldn’t be able to retaliate. Perhaps he thought the people’s respect for Mandela would trump their dislike of him.
In depth: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 1918- 2013
News and views on the death, and life, of former president Nelson Mandela, with tributes and photographsANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa tried several times to calm the crowd, and even said in isiZulu that the time to settle our affairs was when the visitors had left — but to no avail. I wonder if he imagined he’d ever be successful. He won’t have forgotten the scenes at the ANC national conference in Mangaung a year ago, where the crowd would choose of its own volition when to be unruly and when to listen. This is the party culture now.
The length of time in which Madiba was on the brink, and the number of times we thought the time to say goodbye had come, may have made many us let him go quietly a long time ago. The same impulse that drove us to thank and celebrate a great life may have led some to finally express their disgust at the man who came after and has failed to live up to expectations.
It wasn’t just booing that disrupted things. People went to the stadium under the impression that the service would continue along the vein of celebration that began at the weekend, only to find that it was to be a sombre affair with stodgy speeches and silence.
People grieve in their own ways. Ultimately the service was a success considering the logistics involved. Before the ceremony was due to begin, eNCA interviewed the head of security, who said they had only begun preparations on Sunday. They had two days to plan a quick event involving hundreds of heads of state, along with thousands of handlers, staffers and spectators. By all indications, the only serious thing that happened was the embarrassment of Zuma.
It was a uniquely South African event: colourful, bawdy and peppered with moments of genuine disappointment, but underneath it all a superhuman effort to pull off the biggest send-off for the one of the planet’s great citizens.
The boos will likely be the narrative of the memorial service (not to mention Obama’s selfie), but let’s not forget that uTata was given a smooth farewell.
