Voters hope to see change once they have cast their ballots. [Picture: Thapelo Morebudi/TimesLIVE]
Fed up with crippling power cuts, unemployment, crime, corruption and maladministration, South Africans have declared it is time for change. Voting stations opened on Monday for special voters, kicking off this year’s general election.
Speaking to Salaamedia shortly after casting her vote in Lenasia, near Johannesburg, a woman was hopeful the country would take the right turn this year.
“I need to see change in South Africa. There are a lot of things that are happening that we don’t even understand, but for us to vote today, maybe we will see a change today. We hope to see change in our country,” she said.
Another voter, Faizal Akbar, said although it was difficult to find his way to the Lenasia Civic Centre voting station, the process was “efficient” once he found his way.
#SAelections2024 | “I need to see change,” as special voting takes place in South Africa, the Mangenas, ext 13 Lenasia residents, are the first to vote in their area. #ivoted #southafrica #SAelections24SM pic.twitter.com/PXVvbtyFUO
— Salaamedia (@salaamedia) May 27, 2024
#SAelections2024 | A Lenasia resident taking part in special voting is concerned with the confusion regarding ballot boxes at a voting station this morning. #ivoted #SAelections24SM #lenasia @IECSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/1sOY5PpJ00
— Salaamedia (@salaamedia) May 27, 2024
For the first time since 1994, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is poised to lose control nationally. Provincially, the potential for coalitions are well-nigh inevitable in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, where the party scraped little more than the majority needed to govern in 2019.
One of the most recent polls by the Social Research Foundation (SRF) placed the party’s support at 42.2%. Second to the ANC was the Democratic Alliance (DA), at 24.4%. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) might lose third place to Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), which is polling at 13.2% compared to the EFF’s 9.3%.
The watershed election, for which the Electoral Commission says 27 million citizens are registered, will take place on 29 May. Those who will be unable to cast their votes on the day of the election will have an opportunity to do so on Monday and Tuesday. Voting takes place between 09:00 and 17:00 on both days.
