Publications
Partners
Biltong, green apples and mineral water. These are the superfoods that kept political leaders going during a tough election campaign and long hours on the road.
The campaigning is coming to an end and the first round special votes are being cast today.
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane spent most of his time in the Tshwane metro, Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg.
According to his spokesperson, Mabine Seabe, Maimane “survived” on five hours’ sleep.
“At the beginning of the campaign, he challenged public office bearers to have at least five community engagements per day,” said Seabe.
“He was leading from the front.”
Seabe said despite Maimane's hectic 12-hour days, he would still go to gym every morning to exercise and “clear his mind”.
“By 5am he was already up and ready.”
Seabe said that the DA leader got his boost from biltong and mineral water as there is not always time to sit down for a meal.
Certain Inkatha Freedom Party members believed that the party’s 86-year-old leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, IFP leader was putting the younger members to shame with his drilling schedule.
“We could hardly keep up,” said IFP member of Parliament Liezl van der Merwe.
“He was on his feet from 8am until late at night.”
Van der Merwe said Buthelezi traversed several provinces, including the Western Cape, Gauteng and deep in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal.
“He held four or five meetings a day with communities and didn’t have more than five hours of sleep a night. But he never complained.”
The party held an election meeting in Nkandla this weekend – the ward that the IFP won from the ANC in a by-election.
Van der Merwe said there was barely time to eat, but Buthelezi liked green apples and nuts – that kept him going.
The ANC’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town, Xolani Sotashe, found that his time was not his own, said Yonela Diko, Western Cape ANC spokesperson.
“Hour after hour his team ferried him from one place to another. He was on his feet about 18 hours a day and just slept in the car on the way to the next event.”
In addition to his presidential duties, President Jacob Zuma had a busy schedule, during which he visited several provinces in one week.
