Johannesburg - People who do not vote should not complain about how the country is run... That was the consensus among Johannesburg residents on Wednesday.
“I think it's important to vote. If you don't vote then you shouldn't complain,” Mia Jordaan said at a local bar in Randburg.
“I had a discussion earlier today with friends about whether people had a right not to vote. I guess it's their choice in the end,” she said.
Frank van Niekerk said he agreed with Jordaan.
“We're voting for whether we want open or closed toilets,” he chuckled.
“Service delivery is a problem... Look at all the protests we had lately.
“People need to vote if they want the problems sorted out.”
Gys Els said a problem with the local government elections was that South Africans living abroad were not allowed to vote.
“So many people living overseas have property in South Africa, they pay rates and taxes so why shouldn't they vote. I understand that it's difficult to vote for a ward when you're overseas but surely they should be able to vote for a mayor,” he said.
Els, along with Jordaan and van Niekerk, said they had postponed voting on Wednesday.
“We were at the polling station this morning but the line was too long. We're definitely going to go vote though,” van Niekerk said.
Charmaine Montanari from Sandton said: “You can't moan if you don't vote”.
Along with her friend William Price from Randburg they said people “are seeing the good that the DA is doing and that's why more people registered to vote this year”.
“The ANC needs to pull up their socks.”
Xolani Somhlahlo from Randburg said he did not know who he was going to vote for when he went to his local polling station on Wednesday evening.
“I'm just not that into politics. I was actually planning on Googling the DA and the ANC's manifestoes.”
A local park in Parkhurst was abuzz with dogs, children and their owners.
A group of domestic workers from the area said that they had voted early on Wednesday morning.
“It's not right not to vote, everyone must vote,” one of the woman, who did not want to be named, said.
However, one of the woman was upset that she was not able to vote because Home Affairs had spelled her name incorrectly in her identity book.
“It is a pain to go to Home Affairs. My name was spelled wrong... I had to take time off work to go fix it but it was not ready in time for elections,” she said.
The Klevanskys, Vanessa and Leon, said that voting was your only chance to make a decision in the future of the country and that they would teach their children, boys aged two and four, how important it is to “boat” as the one son's called it. - Sapa