Mjajubana takes the crown of election campaigners

“I love helping people,” says ANC man Avela Mjajubana, who has caused a stir by adding spice while on a campaign trail.

Mjajubana, an ANC Eastern Cape provincial executive committee member, has over the past few days been seen doing laundry, carrying buckets of water and even plastering.

While some have been left entertained, saying he took the crown among all the campaigners ahead of the May 29 general elections, others see it as another ploy for getting votes.

Mjajubana, 33, said the innovative ideas were not mind-mapped but rather resulted from genuinely wanting to help people.

"We were taught to meet the campaign with dignity and respect. These things are not planned. Like, for example, you can see a lady carrying a 20l water bucket on her head and she's heading in the same direction as you, you can't just walk up to her and start talking about why you should vote and stuff like that, when you can see she's in a hurry and can't really give you attention.

"So why not take that bucket and carry it for her? It's about being a conscientious person," said Mjajubana.

He said for him, it's about being in the moment and that it didn't start because of elections but it's always been something that is expected from leaders. "Those ladies who were plaiting hair, you see them plaiting in the streets every day without any sort of shelter whatsoever and they do that because they have to make a living.

"When I walked by and I wanted to talk to them, I didn't want to disturb them, I just wanted to have a conversation and lend a hand. They ended up telling me that when it rains for days, they don't know what to do and it would be a difficult week [as they can't work in the rain]," said Mjajubana.

He said the concept of helping started when others helped a herder boy from a village when he first set foot in university. 

"In 2010 when I entered the political landscape, I was a poor student going to university in KwaZulu-Natal, a student who when he arrived at the university was welcomed by the majority of Sasco [SA Students Congress] activists who assisted him to get NSFAS, then they recruited him into the structures of the organisations and his consciousness in assisting others started from there," said Mjajubane from the rural Nyandeni municipality.

"When you grow up in a village, where there's nothing that can really stimulate your mind but to look at the mountains or attend to the cows like the way my father taught me and you're surrounded by gravel roads, you always want change.

"When you get to university and you get to engage with people who also want the same change, you meet similar activists, and when you get to interact with activists you need to do more in order to change [the world]," said Mjajubana.

He said once he joined the ANC, he learnt to dedicate himself to the literature of the organisation and how the policies seemed to echo his own ideas.

"I grew up with the leadership and watched how they interacted with students, how they would create outreach programmes and commit to solving problems. And that's how I continued to grow with Sasco, and Sasco is aligned with the ANC in terms of policy and vision.

"Their work resonates with the majority of people ... from poverty to unemployment, and the ANC is me because it resonated with me as I came from the rural areas," said Mjajubana.

mashalek@sowetan.co.za