President Nelson Mandela, the towering figure who brought South Africa from apartheid to democracy, climaxed his ruling party's election campaign yesterday at a farewell rally of 80,000 adoring supporters.
The jubilant "Thank You" rally for Mr Mandela at a soccer stadium in Soweto township outside Johannesburg was by far the biggest event yesterday, as South Africa's parties wound up their campaigns for Wednesday's second all-race election.
Mr Mandela (80), and his heir, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki (56), were given a raucous welcome from the crowds in packed soccer stands, traditional healers, pop singers and tribal dancers. Mr Mandela will hand over to Mr Mbeki and retire on June 16th.
Mr Mandela jived on stage to the music of a pop anthem written for his African National Congress and told the crowd: "I call upon you to go to the ballot box in your millions to give President Mbeki and the ANC the mandate they need to accelerate the transformation [of the country]."
Violence has remained way below the terrifying levels of the first democratic election in 1994 when about 2,000 people were killed in a 12-month campaign.
But as the parties made their final pitch for votes yesterday a man was shot in the head and a woman injured when ANC supporters tried to disrupt a rally by the opposition United Democratic Movement (UDM) in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township, witnesses said.
The ANC is certain to win the election with around 60 per cent of the vote, but Mr Mandela and Mr Mbeki made a final effort to mobilise their supporters to ensure an overwhelming mandate, repeatedly urging the crowd to get out the voters on Wednesday and explaining polling procedures.
"Despite huge gains, too many of you remain homeless, poor and illiterate. The struggle did not end five years ago. Reversing 350 years of oppression will take more than five years," Mr Mandela said. Mr Mbeki told the crowd: "To vote for the ANC means peace, to vote for the ANC means progress, to vote for the ANC means a better life for all of our people. No other party is working on those plans except the ANC."
Apart from Mr Mandela and Mr Mbeki, the biggest cheer at the Soweto stadium was for Mr Mandela's former wife, Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who is among the top 10 candidates on the ANC's election list and remains hugely popular despite her conviction for kidnapping and assault.
Elsewhere in South Africa, opposition parties racing either for second place or for a foothold in the 400-seat National Assembly also entered the final laps of their campaigns.
In Khayeltisha township where the violence occurred, an ANC renegade, Mr Bantu Holomisa, addressed a rally of 2,000 members of his UDM.
"The ANC government is failing to administer our fledgling democracy. This country is moving towards totalitarianism. Mr Mbeki must know very well that the honeymoon is over," he said.
In the Eastern Cape stronghold of the ANC, the Zulu leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, campaigned for his Inkatha Freedom Party, which is likely to see its national influence cut substantially from the 10 per cent it won in 1994.
Chief Buthelezi attacked the ANC's record on crime, which has spread under democratic rule from the black townships of apartheid into former white suburban and business areas.
"The statistics of crime are horrifying. Many of our communities are living in a state of terror," he said.
Crime is a key issue for the parties vying for second place, the Democratic Party (DP) and the New National Party (NNP) that, as the National Party, imposed and then dismantled apartheid.
The DP leader, Mr Tony Leon, trying to topple the NNP as the official political opposition, said yesterday only his mainly white party could temper the immense power of the ANC. "Only the DP has the guts to stand up to the ANC," Mr Leon said, to cheers from a black-dominated crowd east of Johannesburg.