Old voters hope for a better post-election time
ALEXANDRA – An elderly couple expect for better from a new ANC presidency.
An elderly Alex couple in the bottle recycling business hopes that their votes will improve their well-being when the ANC governs again.
Tsarisa Baloyi (64) who was interviewed while pounding bottles into smatterings at her business site in the open next to the polling site at Three Square Sports Grounds is expecting for better this time. She crushes the bottles daily in a business she said nets her R500 per month. “The money adds to the old age grant and ensures that we don’t starve and all our household needs are met.”
The income also adds to the grant and the little that is earned by her husband, 90-year-old William Chauke, although he looks more like he is in his 70s.
Baloyi has been at it for 10 years, gone through many elections, seen the national go from euphoria and honeymoon of the first democratic elections in 1994 and governance under former late president Nelson Mandela, through presidents Thabo Mbeki and, the ignominious era of Jacob Zuma she said should be forgotten past.
Protecting her eyes with goggles provided by her son, Baloyi is hoping for a presidency that will help her and others in the recycling industry and the small business sector in general to survive. “We work hard for little income and need support with decent shelter and to fend off our suffering,” she said.
“I hope my vote ushers someone who will listen and attend to our plight.”
This said about the hardship of moving around including in inclement weather collecting empty bottles which she said boys sometimes steal to further their own similar businesses. Crushing the bottles mostly of beer seemed no easy feat with her complaining of aches on her arm and shoulder muscles, pain in her legs and high blood pressure from anxiety about her family’s financial security. Baloyi who hails from Giyani is now a ‘city girl’ who is not contemplating moving back to an expansive rural setting where others rely on subsistence livelihoods, unlike her.
Chauke, who said he will continue voting ANC, was concerned about the motives of many parties that mushroomed to contest the elections. “They only cropped up to confuse people, particularly the uneducated who required advice to vote wisely.”
He feared that they wouldn’t guarantee the security of social grants which many rely on as their only defense against death from poverty. This said as he posed with the love of his life.
Related article:
https://northeasterntribune.co.za/227860/no-end-in-sight-for-poverty/
