Young designer travels 350km to cast her vote

At 9pm on Tuesday, Tlangelani Mthombeni, an interior and beauty products designer, started her more than 300km journey on a bus just so she could cast her vote.

Mthombeni who is registered to vote at Kamagugu on Wednesday told Sowetan that after arriving in Mbombela at about 1.45am, 355km from Johannesburg, she had to spend a few hours at a filing stations, she had to wait for taxis to start operating so that she could continue her journey and get to the polling station

“It was worth it,” Mthombeni said.

“When I arrived at the voting station, I was number four in the queue and I voted at 7.25am. I did not want to change my voting station because I’m only in Johannesburg because of business.

“It was a great feeling casting all three ballots to elect who should be my president. I’m happy I did that and it was worth the journey,” said Mthombeni.

By 3pm on Wednesday, Mthombeni was back in Johannesburg.

“I just arrived and now I’m back to my daily hustle,” said Mthombeni.

She joined over 1.2 million voters registered in Mpumalanga across more than 1,800 voting stations.

Semaki Mosupye, 30, who works in Rustenburg, North West, made sure he was in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, where he was born and raised so he could vote, a process he described as effortless.

Like many in his township, Mosupye – who said politicians had in the past made many promises that they failed to fulfil – said he was hoping that whomever he votes for will help in reducing crime.

“I am expecting crime to drop.

“They should put more streetlights in our area and recreational centres for children. I have two children aged 1 and 2 and they don’t have facilities  where they can play.

“I work in Rustenburg but I came here to vote because I care about the future of my children,” he said. 

Mosupye also said police should stop going after drug addicts and start hunting drug dealers.