Johannesburg-
Democratic Alliance Gauteng premier candidate Mmusi Maimane voted at the Presbyterian Church in Dobsonville, Soweto, on Wednesday.
“I am voting for change, there is no secret about it,” he said as he walked into the voting station, a street from his mother's house.
A few people stood outside the voting station before he arrived and no one was in the line to vote.
The media that had been waiting outside flocked into the station, with members of the public following, causing chaos at the door.
The presiding officer urged those who had finished voting to make way and those who were not voting to move.
A man who looked drunk shouted that he wanted to vote, not see the celebrities or cameras.
“Niyasiphazamisa ngama camera. You are disturbing us with your cameras we want to vote,” he shouted in isiZulu.
Maimane, who was accompanied by his mother, voted, followed by a throng of journalists. He posed for the cameras with a ballot paper.
“I am happy to have voted here where I grew up. This is a very special place for me,” he told journalists outside the church.
He said the party was confident because more people had been supporting it. While addressing the media, two police officers approached him and asked him to do whatever he was doing outside the premises. While he was slowly moving out with the media, two police vehicles arrived.
Maimane's mother Ethel Maimane said she was happy to have voted with her son.
“I have voted before and at first I voted for a different party, but this time I voted for change and a better life,” she said.
She said her son had always been an active child growing up.
“He was always determined to do everything best, he was a born leader and always fought to get what he wanted. He was very clever in school also,” she said.
People in the area greeted him and he remembered most of them and called them by name. They took pictures with him and told him they supported him.
Most of the residents asked him for a photograph or a DA T-shirt. One man told his neighbour in the area that he did not like voting, but would make an exception because of Maimane. - Sapa