'Hands Off Zuma' vigil turns into party of the year

An overnight vigil in support of beleaguered South African ex-president Jacob Zuma turned into a festival of song and dance on Thursday night.

Durban's Albert Park reverberated to the "Hands Off Zuma" rally, initially dubbed a vigil and "mother of all prayers" for the popular former leader who faced trial on 16 corruption charges at the city's High Court on Friday morning.

Those charges relate to allege kickbacks from the mammoth 1998 arms deal, struck before Mr Zuma was even a member of the national government. His supporters have called the reinstatement of the charges, which were thrown out of court in 2008 and finally dropped in 2009, a witch-hunt orchestrated by "White Monopoly Capital," common parlance for neo-colonial Western business interests looking to maintain their dominance of the South African economy.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) pressured Mr Zuma to resign in February, just over a year ahead of scheduled elections, and installed billionaire deputy Cyril Ramaphosa in his stead.
But comments by some ANC leaders and pro-opposition media over the past week have betrayed a fear that the show of solidarity with Mr Zuma could threaten the authority of the new president, who has already made himself unpopular with workers and small businesses. Police minister Bheki Cele warned ANC members attending the vigil and marches not to wear their party regalia -- an instruction they defied en masse.

Supporters from across the vast country of 50 million converged on the Indian Ocean east coast city and capital of KwaZulu Natal province on Thursday evening, with high spirits already evident on the buses.

Zuma supporters partying en route to Durban

Police warnings of blocked city streets on Friday morning already proved correct, as Zuma supporters danced and sang at junctions, blocking traffic.

Blocking the city streets

The event quickly turned into an open mic night as one impromptu speaker after another took the stage, interspersed with more spontaneous singing and dancing among the crowd.

At the vigil in Durban's Albert Park

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