Bad weather in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands prevented ANC president Jacob Zuma from flying to a rally in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.

Zuma, who was due to conclude his three-day provincial election campaign in Pietermaritzburg's Sweet Waters stadium, was in Bergville in the Midlands when bad weather prevented him from flying to his last rally.

Thousands of ANC supporters had waited for Zuma since 10am at the stadium.

"We really apologise to you. Windy weather has forced Zuma to cancel his engagement in Sweet Waters," said ANC chairperson Zweli Mkhize around 4.30pm.

Speaking earlier at the ANC rally in Maqongqo outside Pietermaritzburg, Zuma expressed confidence that his party would win the forthcoming elections overwhelmingly.

Briefing the media on the third day of lobbying in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma said the campaigns leading up to the election had been "vibrant".

"We feel very confident and comfortable that we will do the usual by upping percentages as we did before."

A large donation

In the evening, Zuma addressed members of the Manara Chamber of Commerce which represents Muslim business people.

During the function held in Durban, the chamber announced that it had donated R2-million to the ANC to wind up its election campaign.

It also announced that it had set aside R5-million to start the President's Empowerment Youth Fund. The fund's chief patron would be Zuma, the chamber announced at a function attended by close to 1000 people.

Speaking during the function which was also attended by Intelligence Minister Siyabonga Cwele, Zuma thanked the chamber for establishing the fund and contributing money to the ANC.

"The contribution will go a long way in helping the ANC to complete its campaign. I would also like to thank you for the trust fund. I believe that it is always good to pay attention to the youth," said Zuma.

He told business people that the ANC had done vigorous evaluation of its programmes to find flaws that needed to be ironed out.

"We have looked into our programmes to see whether there have been weaknesses and what remedies can be applied to make us deliver better," he said.

Bringing change to the party

Zuma said ANC members who did not support change in the party had been defeated during the Polokwane conference in 2007.

"What the ANC has gone through is the process that many liberation movements go through. The ANC has managed to handle the change very well. Liberation movements such as Zanu-PF were not able to face the challenge and as a result Zimbabwe went deeper into problems," said Zuma.

The ANC president again reiterated that it was not true that the ruling party would shift South Africa's economic policies more to the left.

"When Mandela was elected, he was supported by Cosatu and the Communist Party and there was a lot of uncertainty because of that. He came in and he ran the country efficiently and some people pleaded with him not to leave."

Zuma said that when former president Thabo Mbeki took over from Mandela, people were again sceptic, saying that he would mess up the country because he was a communist.

"Mbeki came in and he ran the country well especially the economy. Now that Mbeki has left, people raise concerns that I am supported by Cosatu. They are repeating it for the third time now because they do not understand how the ANC functions."