Freedom is worth voting for, says migrant worker's thankful daughter

Memories of not being able to visit her father, who was a migrant worker in Cape Town during the 1970s and 80s, motivated Noluthando Mgoja to vote in rainy Cape Town on Wednesday.

Mgoja was one of a trickle of voters who turned up at Sophakamisa Primary School in Dunoon to cast their vote.

“I don’t take democracy and the right to vote lightly,” said Mgoja.

“I may have not have many possessions such as a brick house, but things such as travelling to Cape Town without restrictions are a still a big deal to me.

"Before democracy we hardly saw our father as we needed to have pass books to come to the city. Today everyone in my family can come to the big cities without worrying about the restrictions."

Nosipho Ngabom, who voted for the first time at the age of 29, stood outside St Laurence Anglican Churchin Dunoon for more than an hour to cast her vote.

She said she had been indifferent about voting in the past, but “I realised that I was wasting my opportunities to have a voice”.

She added: “I thought my one vote wouldn’t make a difference, but now I see things very differently.”

In Table View, psychology student Sesethu Madikane, 19, waited patiently in a winding queue at Regent Park voting station. After much persuasion from her parents she said she decided to do things differently from her peers and vote.

“Many of my friends are not voting today. They say they don’t see any difference so there is no point in voting. But I think it’s about time that we change such attitude because we are the future of this country and we should start taking action now,” she said.

Naomi Mhlaba-Arnott, 19, said even though many of her peers had decided not to vote, she had come alone as she wants to have a say in the political system.

“If we don’t vote as young people then we should have no say in how the country is run,” she said. And even though there had been progress in the democratic era, “it’s really been disappointing to hear about all the corruption”.

Kirsten Perker, 29, who will leave shortly to work overseas, said: “I booked my flight for tomorrow so that I could vote first. It feels so good to spend my last day at home in such a great environment of voters who are enthusiastic about this country.”

Hilton Graver kept voters’ spirits high by getting them to dance to music on his phone. He described the last 25 years of democracy as “a mixed bag” of good and bad.

“There has been so much progress, but at the same time there have been many disappointments, and corruption is one the things that had spoilt our democracy,” he said.

“But our vote today will hopefully give a strong message of what we as South Africans want.”