By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) — led by ex-convict Gayton McKenzie — celebrated their 10th birthday on Saturday 25 November at Orlando Stadium.
The PA planned a big birthday celebration, but things didn’t go as planned for McKenzie who found himself addressing a small crowd which barely managed to fill one section of the stadium.
In a statement, McKenzie apologised to his supporters for failing to fill the stadium.
The event, which was meant to start at 1pm, only got under way after 5pm, with many of the supporters complaining of hunger and dehydration after spending hours waiting for McKenzie to address them.
Do not be disheartened, patriots, let us prepare for the all important by-election on Wednesday. We shall do better next time. My greatest lesson I learnt in life is to fail fast,” McKenzie said.
Ahead of the celebrations, McKenzie addressed the media on Wednesday at Orlando Stadium on the state of readiness of the party’s celebration rally.
McKenzie, who promised that the event would be an anti-illegal-immigrant gathering, indicated that he, too, was disappointed over what happened on Saturday.
“I am sad for all of you and understand the anger and disappointment. We have had 20 000 people, according to JOC, that entered the stadium but due to food, drink and logistics, they left to get food and were prevented from returning back to the stadium,” he said.
As result, McKenzie said throngs of PA supporters were left stranded outside the stadium. He said buses broke down on their way to the stadium.
“People are stranded in buses on the road. People are sitting in buses on the highways waiting for mechanics. I am not blaming anyone. I am taking full responsibility. I have let most of you down terribly. I am not looking for sympathy, but you have word that we will fix this and make it right. Many lessons were learnt, we got more wrong that we got right,” he said.