A LOW TURNOUT FOR THE MANDELA BIRTHDAY CARD SIGNING
By: Raymond Padya
Football fans flocked the Suncoast Casino and Entertainment Centre to get autographs from the Manchester City FC and AmaZulu FC players leaving only a few people caring to sign the giant Nelson Mandela birthday card.
The signing session was meant to give fans the chance to meet the AmaZulu and Manchester City players, to get autographs and to give them a chance to sign the giant Mandela birthday card.
However, fans were more concerned about meeting their football heroes and left as soon as they got their autographs, living a small number of people to sign the Mandela birthday card.
Soccer stars with the likes of Yaya Toure, Gareth Barry and Jack Rodwell were present to meet the huge crowd but they left some of their fans disappointed as they went back for training before giving everyone autographs. Manchester City playmaker, Toure had high praises for Mandela.
“Mandela’s birthday is important, it is the birthday of the leader of the whole of Africa… Mandela is a guy the whole world depends on and for me, I want to participate on his birthday and I hope he gets better,” said Toure.
The signing of the card did not go as planed by the sponsors. Last week, they mentioned that they hired free contractors to make sure that everyone signs the card once and in one block. However, this was not the case at Suncoast as some people wrote over 10 boxes and there was no-one to control them.
The card is 2 x 2 meters long and it has 10 000 blocks that are meant to be signed by members of the public to get the card in the Guinness Book of Records for the card with the most signatures for one person.
Currently the world record holder for the card with the most signatures for one person has 5 400 signatures, therefore Matchworld, the card sponsors, aim to double the number and get 10 000 signatures for Mandela.
The card will also be at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Thursday during the AmaZulu and Manchester City match and people are welcome to sign the card.
Below, Raymond Padya will take you though some interviews of fans that got autographs from the players and people who signed the Mandela birthday card.
