Voting in Chartwell runs smoothly for the most part

Voting has mostly run smoothly at Ward 113 voting station at the Zewenfontein Hall and Nursery in Chartwell, off of Cedar Road, as South Africans take to the ballots in today’s local elections.

According to Debbie Rosz, the DA party agent assigned to the station by her party to monitor the voting process, about 257 people had already cast their votes between 6am and 11am.

Gladys Mamabolo and her husband Hendrick arrived at the station at 11.30am to cast their votes. “We’re praying for peace during the elections and for South Africa’s future,” explained Mamabolo, who is orginally from Limpopo, but who has lived and worked in the Fourways area for over a decade.

“I want the people elected to fix the problems [that residents face] we need real toilets and clinics, and access to houses and clean water. But what we need most is jobs.”

A few of the voters who turned up at the station were turned away by IEC officials because they were not registered at that station. One woman who spoke to Fourways Review explained that she had registered in a nearby ward without realising that she would have to vote there as well.

Bradley and Vasco Da Costa meanwhile encountered some trouble when they found out upon arrival that their names were not on the voter’s register, although they had voted at the station in the last elections in 2014.

“We’re calling the IEC now in order to find out what to do, how to resolve this,” said Da Costa. “We really want to vote today.”

Most voters, though, were able to cast their vote without any problems. David Gregor, who has lived in the area for 10 years, was very happy casting his vote. “I believe it’s very important for us to vote,” he said.