On Wednesday, South Africans lined up to vote for their new president. At one polling building, the line stretched down 200 yards down one street. However, the people did not seem to mind the long wait. Thomas Baloyi, 49, had arrived at 5:45 a.m. and was able to cast his ballot five hours later. He had voted for the African National Congress, the party that liberated them from apartheid. It had governed the country for the past fifteen years.
Almost every in South Africa were croweded like this one. Many voting places ran out of paper ballots and cardboard boxes where the votes were stored. The country's electoral commission says that these are only minor delays, while some politicians are saying that the failures are pitiful. A record of 23 million people showed up to vote, in a country of 48.7 million.
This election was the 4th election of this new democratic nation, and it seems that Jacob Zuma, leader of the African National Congress, is going to win the election. From the early votes counted on Thursday out of 1.5 million votes, the African National Congress party had received more than 62% of the votes, despite the internal conflicts that the party has been facing.
The city of Diepsloot shows why the A.N.C. still received the most votes. The 150,000 people living there have always lived poverty on their backs. Some are lucky enough to live in government-funded homes, while other live in shacks known as "mkhukhus." However, things are getting better little by little, and the people think that it is because of the A.N.C. The A.N.C. remains as a symbol of liberation. Voters also relate Nelson Mandela to the party, and said that they do not want to let him down.
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The article shows evidences that South Africa is still a very young and premature country. People are voting for a party that has broken down for its traditional symbol of liberation. The South Africans must start to vote for the present and the future, and not for the past. Just because a party has helped to liberate the country from apartheid does not mean that it will continue to serve the country well. Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who had also contributed tremendously to liberating South Africa stated that he will not vote for Jacob Zuma because he was accused of political corruption while he was president.
1 comment:
I completely agree with the statement you made in your opinion. I think South Africa citizens should now become more thoughtful of their selection rather than voting for the African National Congress party out of thankfulness for the party's past achievement of liberation. Because the party has currently been accused of corruption, people should become more careful. Their wrong decision can easily lead to the country's fall to the political corruption. In this context, I agree with former President Thabo Mbeki that people should vote according to their judgement on conscience. In order to complete the most ideal form of government Abraham Lincoln proposed in his Gettysburg speech, people's active and conscientious participation is critical. "The government of the people, by the people, and for the people" can only be established with people's righteousness and such a government "shall not perish from the earth".
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