LYDENBURG – Residents on Wednesday showed up in numbers to feed the ballot boxes and cast their all-important vote in the national elections.
Steelburger/Lydenburg News visited various voting stations in and around town and is happy to report that voting at most of them ran smoothly.
A small hiccup, however, occurred when the station at the recreational hall had a 15-minute delay in opening its doors.
When it was eventually up and running, both the executive mayor of TCM, Mr Michael Ncongwane and DA deputy chairman of Mpumalanga Ms Sonja Boshoff was some of the first to cast their all-important vote.
In Burgersfort issues surfaced when some voters were upset when they apparently noticed that the ballot boxes at Mogale Wa Bogale had not been sealed. A woman complained to the IEC workers at the specific station about the issue.
The incident happened around 10:00 on Wednesday morning. “If the boxes are not sealed then anyone can remove votes from it. How can we be sure now that the elections are fair?” the woman asked.
When Steelburger/Lydenburg News arrived at the voting station after the complaint the boxes had been sealed. The elections officer at the station refused to comment on the matter. The newspaper assured the officer that the issue would be taken up with the relevant spokesman in due course.
At the Thaba Chweu Municipal building voters in the queues were cheery despite the long wait. In Mashishing voting stations were abuzz with residents and party representatives had a busy time assisting the crowd with voting procedures.
The TCM building was the busiest station as some 6 000 residents were registered to vote there.
The newspaper also wanted to know from various party officials how they thought their parties would fare in this election.
Ncongwane told Steelburger/Lydenburg News that the ANC was going to do very well. “People are very excited to vote for the ANC, but of course not all people think alike. The ANC has a good track-record. It has done very well in terms of service delivery.
It has provided houses worht R3,3 million- people received the land, a house and a title deed. Which other government could do that? Moving from an era where you are not supposed to own land, you can now have land and a house. To us, that is an achievement.”
On the issue of grants he said most people did not understand the objective of grants. “If people are poor, then they don’t have food. You can’t only stand there and say that you are trying to provide job opportunities.
Job opportunities take time and while we are busy preparing for that we also have the problem of a population explosion. People are mushrooming all over and for that you have to provide.”
Ncongwane also said in terms of education government was providing free education at certain schools. “The government has built 12 FET colleges and in Mpumalanga we will soon have our very own university.
There is thus a lot you can say about the government and what it has done, but just like any other government it is not perfect. We are striving towards perfection and will always try to provide better services and a better life for all and in TCM people are looking forward to a win for the ANC and a win is a certainty.”
Boshoff said as a citizen of South Africa, it was a privilege to again cast her vote. “As a member of parliament I am not ashamed to show my loyalty to the only political party which has systematically grown over the past 20 years, namely the Democratic Alliance. We have proved our worth in the Western Cape and the other 28 municipalities that we govern which has made the voter realise that a vote for the DA can bring about change.
Therefore I am positive that the DA will do well in all nine provinces and that we will retain the Western Cape.”
She said that the DA has fought a long and hard election campaign visiting every single constituency in the province and it was positive that its support in Mpumalanga would grow.
National Federal Mpumalanga councillor of the VF+, Mr Frik Rousseau said his party would do exceptionally well in Mpumalanga.
“A lot of former DA supporters have changed to the VF+. We are experiencing a significant increase in support for the party in the province. It is still our duty to support the residents in Lydenburg with water and electricity issues.”
By the time of going to print, the ANC was leading in Mpumalanga with 77,20% with some 5,2 million votes, the DA in second place with 11,41% and 0,77 million votes, the EFF with 5,85% and 0,39 million votes and the VF+ with 0,96% and 64 430 votes.
