While everything went smoothly for first time voters Taylor Petersen and Alicia Paige on November 1 during the Local Government Elections, there were disappointments for some residents at the voting stations in Eldorado Park.
Alvina Phirie who is a resident of Ward 17 shared that she registered to vote but when she arrived at the voting station at Delrado Primary School, she was told that she was not registered. “I went to the guy who scans the ID’s and he provided me with this slip that said ‘not on voters roll’. He told me that I never registered but another lady checked for me on the system and it shows that I register but the system was down on that day when I registered, however they did not pick it up. So, I can’t vote at all and it is very sad because I can’t vote for my party. We are basically losing one vote now,” said the disappointed resident.
On the other side, Parkdale Primary School’s voting station had a lot of action as residents with placards demonstrated their frustrations for the lack of housing in the community.
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Phillip Ratson who is a community leader and representative of the Eldorado Park backyard dwellers told us that they are fed up with giving political parties their votes as nothing gets done for them. The group of residents all chose not to vote because they have been disappointment time after time.
“Some residents have C Forms from 1980 and still they don’t have houses. Some died and never had a house. Our democratic government is the same as the apartheid government, our people still have not been allocated houses so what must we do? No political party will work for us,” said Ratson.
The residents expressed that the ANC has failed them by not delivering on their promises and shared that they will have their demonstrations until there are new houses built for them in Eldorado Park.
“There is so much land, why is it standing open? Is it for rich people to come in and open businesses while the poor get poorer? None of us are voting today. We need an independent structure that will support us, not a political party,” concluded Ratson.
The group of backyard dwellers walked to the different voting station to make their voices heard.
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