Voting never gets old for veteran citizens
Despite challenges, men who participated in the first election still have faith in democracy
When Zingisile Mhlanga queued outside a voting station in East London on April 27 1994 and placed an X next to the ANC, he was voting for equality and equal pay in work places.
On the same day, Bantwini Deliwe drove up and down ensuring all was running smoothly in voting stations in East London for the three days that were allocated for voting.
Mhlanga, 78, who was number 20 in the queue, having arrived at 5am, said he was excited about the prospect of democracy and did not want to miss the chance to have a say in the new democratic dispensation.
Fast forward 30 years, Mhlanga, of Bhalura village in Sheshegu outside Dikeni, still relishes the idea of voting. He has signed up for a special vote.
“I was rushing to work so I needed to be among the first few to vote,” Mhlanga said.
“We were yearning for democracy and I cast my vote all these years ago for the same party. I cannot change now.”
His village has electricity. There’s no running water, though clean water is carted in occasionally.
Some sections of a gravel road leading to the village has some patches of potholes.
“To me, when I look back on the past 30 years, I can say democracy has been on and off in the sense that we get some services and don’t get others.
“Before casting our votes for the first time there was a slogan that the workers will lead.
“Those people who were the workers are the ones leading the country today.
“To this day I don’t see why people should protest against the same people who protested for our democracy.
“[Nelson] Mandela [first democratically elected president] said there would be free education, but our grandchildren are still fighting for that even today.”
Mhlanga has voted in all six of SA’S democratic elections.
“I have that mentality that what I voted for in 1994 will happen. Not voting doesn’t help.
“I voted for workers, both black and white, to earn the same salary for the same kind of work they do.
“What we thought, as workers at the time, was that our jobs would uplift our living standard, but that is still not the case now.”
Mhlanga bemoaned illegal migration of people from other countries to SA.
He said the government needed to root out murder and rape, corruption, unemployment and poverty.
“The state of our country is not pleasing at all, but I believe these things can be rectified, starting with corruption.
“People are taking the law into their own hands now because they have lost hope in the system.
“The death penalty was working because it ensured people don’t commit these heinous crimes we see today.”
Deliwe, 63, only managed to cast his vote on the third day in Mdantsane’s NU13 where he grew up.
Deliwe, a Beacon Bay resident, worked as a teacher, a principal and later a school monitor.
He described the mood on the day as jovial and high-spirited.
He was part of the task team overseeing and monitoring that voting went well on behalf of the alliance partners — the ANC, SACP and Cosatu.
“People were ecstatic that day to vote for the first time. It felt like Christmas day. The queues were very long but they soldiered on.
“I didn’t have time so I voted on the third day. I voted for freedom and equality,” Deliwe said.
He had felt the wrath of the apartheid government regime.
Once, as a University of Fort Hare student, he was arrested while walking from a library to his home without carrying a dompas and spent two days in jail.
Deliwe said as black people they were not allowed to swim at any of the beaches in East London or walk anywhere near the beaches.
“Our children were not allowed in white schools. I couldn’t live where I’m currently staying.
“Now I can walk and swim and do everything. Since I voted I can do those things now.
“Back then we needed a permit to go anywhere.”
Voting for the first time, Deliwe said he and many others thought the problems plaguing the country were over.
“We thought all our problems would be solved with voting.
“We had a good leader in Nelson Mandela.
“We hoped everything would be like paradise, the land of milk and honey.
“Now it’s like a bad dream because our first leaders, Mandela and [Thabo] Mbeki were moral, upright men who were entrusted with uplifting the people of SA.
“I can’t say that with the current crop of leaders. Some are there for the money and welfare of the people is secondary.”
Deliwe said economic freedom was still a dream for most while unemployment remained a challenge.
“There are still people who live in shacks. After so many years of freedom, I regard that as treachery.
“The pace at which schools are built is not fast enough.
“Everybody should be enjoying freedom, but it’s a small elite group of people that are enjoying freedom.
“SA is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of resources.
“It should be that those resources are being spread, but those are enjoyed by a small elite group,” Deliwe said.
Growing up in the dusty streets of Mdantsane, streets were gravel roads; few homes had electricity while the walls of some homes were unplastered.
Now, things have turned out for good, Deliwe said.