Your vote is your voice, stop whining
Editor, Vivaga Thambiran encourages residents to exercise their right to vote.
Tomorrow South Africans will wake up to a country where the Independent Electoral Commission will host the sixth national election, starting at 7am till 9pm. Those who have not registered, stop whining. You had the golden opportunity to make your contribution by changing the political landscape. But you chose not to. For those who have registered, use your vote wisely. Your vote is not only your basic constitutional right but it is also your secret. No one needs to know who you voted for and why. Not even your spouse or sibling needs to know.
No one can force you who to vote for. It is entirely your decision. After all it is your country. While many people feel that their vote does not count, a huge majority of voters will take to the polls in the hopes of a better future and life. Twenty years ago, the world watched as South Africa became a liberated, free country and South Africans conjured in long queues to cast their first vote for a democratic, rainbow nation. As millions of people put their cross beside the face of world struggle icon Nelson Mandela, those days of miracles and hopes are a fading memory to some. But for the majority, casting your vote is not only historic and significant but a celebration of a people’s democracy.
