‘They never followed the principles of Mandela’ – elderly citizens as they vote

Frail 85-year-old Ntshantsha Kgatledi has never missed an opportunity to vote, from the first time she was given that right in 1994.

Today, she needs crutches to get around and was happy that the Electoral Commission of South Africa came round to her reconstruction and development programme (RDP) house in Thubelisha on the outskirts of Soweto to take her special vote.

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She’s angry with the government which, she says, never followed the principles or example Nelson Mandela set 30 years ago.

‘Full of hope’

“The lines were long. We were full of hope that change was upon us,” she said.

“But today, you see the dispute we have as black people and they will regret it. They never followed the principles of Mandela and that will haunt them,” Kgatledi said.

“But I voted for Mandela and I won’t change for any other party. “Mandela can’t die for a nation and we turn his legacy into a joke because he has died.

“He sacrificed his life in prison for 27 years and worked for black people, but today many of them are fighting for positions.

“We forget what he gave up, his family. That angers us.

“We are from the apartheid era, where young boys used to kick us on our backsides and insult us, yet, today they are fighting over money,” she said.

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Baku Rorotyana, 78, cast his vote outside his rented shack. The former mine worker shares his shack with his son.

“I vote because there is still hope,” he said. “I still believe that something good can still happen for our people.

“I remember I was in Dobsonville at the time [1994] and we were just excited that we were going to get a new government.

“Although we didn’t know what was to follow, we had hope that Mandela was here to lead us and when the ANC won, for the first time, we became people,” Rorotyana said.

Still believes in ANC

Despite his current living conditions, he said he believed the ANC will be able to fulfil his dream of one day owning a house.

“My only concern is that they are people who get away with doing wrong and nothing is done to reprimand them.

“That is why today I am given the runaround when I visit the housing office.

“My wish is to meet the senior people of the party, [like] Nomvula Mokonyane [first deputy secretary-general of the ANC], who will hear my cry for a house.

“It is a shame at my age I am living in somebody’s back yard.” Johan Louw, who cast his vote at the Donovan McDonald Retirement Centre, said he believed these elections will help shape a better South Africa.

“It feels like racism is being put to the fore to cover up for shortcomings,” he said.

“This vote is big. We hope and pray things will change, even if it’s just a warning for the ANC to get their house in order. Because they can.

“They have all the potential to do what is right.”