Voters felt a sense of nostalgia hearkening back to the first democratic elections in South Africa back in 1994, as they lined up to make a difference at Wierda Independent School in Centurion on Wednesday.
After over two-and-a-half hours waiting in line, residents in Centurion began to cast their votes after a frustrating wait.
Despite people gathering in line before 7am, the scheduled start time of voting, the process only began after 9.30am.
IEC officials said this was down to their digital system being offline but they eventually were able to get the process up and running.
Voter Boitumelo Finga said it was a frustrating wait, but he was glad he endured the 2.5hr delay at Wierda Independent School in Centurion on Wednesday.@IOL pic.twitter.com/9TWwQHnfK1
— Michael Sherman (@Golfhackno1) May 29, 2024
‘Worse than last time’
Boitumelo Finga said it was a frustrating wait, but he was glad he endured the delay.
“I think it was worse than the last time. The waiting times in the queues, technology failures … so I think they should have went with a manual system from the onset,” said Finga.
“We spent about two-and-a-half-hours in the queue. I got here at 6.55am and they were supposed to open at 7am. But the queue wasn’t moving until past 8am.
“Otherwise it was a good feeling. That’s why I stood in the queue for so long. It was worth it. We vote for change.”
Ina Engelbrecht, meanwhile, was in high spirits as she felt a sense of nostalgia as she cast her vote.
“It was nice. It was unfortunate we waited a long time after the voting station opened. Once we were inside, everyone was friendly and efficient. We had very good [Democratic Alliance] DA agents here too. I don’t know, there were no other parties here. All in all, it was a pleasant experience and it’s the right thing to do,” said Engelbrecht.
“We waited about three hours. We were here at 7am but the voting station took quite a long time to be ready for us.
“Every vote counts. It’s something that so many people struggled to get. From where it was when even women couldn’t vote, till the time that all South Africans could vote. We must go and vote, too many people suffered for it.”
Voter Ina Engelbrecht was in high spirits as she felt a sense of nostalgia as she cast her vote at Wierda Independent School in Centurion on Wednesday.@IOLNews pic.twitter.com/rH8JXHjLuL
Nostalgia
Engelbrecht went on to say that it felt like 1994 all over again.
“It’s one vote, and many people say ‘what can one vote do?’ But many votes together, we can make a difference. That’s what we must do today. I get the feeling of ’94, I feel excited that we can vote and that this will be a collective vote for the better so that we can fix the things that aren’t right and build on the things that are right.
“The fact that people stand in queues for hours to be able to say we want to make this work, make our country work. That says it all. South Africans are strong, over all races and religions we have this urge to make this country work and we can only do it one vote at a time. And that’s why I’m here.”
The only political party with a clear presence at the station was the DA. When asked why they were the only political party at the voting station, a senior official chimed in with the official party slogan that it was “the people’s chance to rescue SA.”
IOL