Elections - A Born frees
experience
The long awaited 2014 elections
took place on 7 May and saw many born frees voting for the very first time, a
day that had united the entire country! From the violent experiences to the
quiet and calm voters, the day was experienced in many different ways.
Sarania Padayachee (20) is a born free who is from the East Rand area of Benoni and
had voted at a nearby primary school where she
described the atmosphere to be almost
disappointing as she had‘expected more.’ However she was excited to be part of South Africa’s fifth official
democratic elections. She described her experience as
‘quite chilled’ but that she hadn't expected the day to
unfold in such a calm way. Also being lucky enough
not to wait in the terribly long lines.
Another comment she made was that
she felt a spark of excitement when the time came to actually cast her very
first vote although she had admitted to being filled with a whole lot of doubt,
‘when it came to putting my mark on the ballot sheet, I still had doubt in my
mind because it was inevitable what the outcome would be.’ She also brought to
attention that her vote was decided upon way before the election date had come
but still keeps it a secret even two weeks later, ‘ my vote was a secret but to
make a change I would need a team, not just me.’
One problem that she had
encountered on the day was that the IEC staff were apparently very unorganized
and unconcerned. She remembered an incident were a lady had not known that the
various forms should be filled out using a black pen and had instead used blue
ink. An IEC staff member later told the lady that they do not have a black pen
to help her rectify her mistake and allowed her to use a blue pen which Sarania
believes would have ended up as a spoilt vote. Sarania’s entire family of 7
took to the polls on Election Day but all went to different venues to make
their experiences memorable.
Sarania has not always taken an
interest in the political issues of the country but it had come to a point
where she felt she needed to make her views heard and decided to take the opportunity
to vote. Being a born free to Sarania means being free to do things that
people, especially young woman, could not do in the old days. Voting being one
of those things. She believes that a born free is rid of any discrimination and
sees that purely as historical issues of the past which she is thankful for not
having to experience.
The freedom to vote was something that past heroes had died fighting for, to see South Africa as a
democratic land. The term ‘born free’ literally means that these
individuals were born when South Africa became a democratic country to live in,
where rights were equally shared and no ill feelings were felt. Born frees will
not remember what happened in the year of 1994 but are now living in the result
of what South Africans fought for.
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