Call for IEC to explain the importance of voting to deaf community

A deaf man, who was one of the millions of South Africans to cast their votes in this year’s general elections, said the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) needs to educate the deaf community about elections and help them understand why it was necessary to vote.

Jared Drake, from Pinelands, said it was important for the IEC to hire a South African Sign Language (SALS) interpreter to explain to the deaf community through TV and social media about voting, what to expect and what they should do.

“This will help them understand why it is necessary to vote and to avoid indirect votes to the current political party if they don't wish the current political party to win. They need to do something to explain to them deeply and the clarification on how it works.”

Drake said when he voted on Wednesday, and for the party that he chose, it was for a better SA because “everyone depends on various services from the SA government”.

“I decided to vote for a specific political party because everyone needs access to various services including jobs, and we need to reduce taxes to relieve people's debts. Too many taxes are putting pressure on their already tight budgets,” Drake said.

According to Drake, who was Mister Deaf SA 2023 finalist, there was a high unemployment rate in the deaf community, and he hoped that the situation will change with the new administration.

“I want to see a big improvement in the unemployment rate, clean water system, and I want the government to stabilise our power stations and some services,” the 35-year-old man said.

Drake, who has been voting since 2011, went by himself to the voting station on Wednesday and managed to vote without glitches.

“Due to my artificial hips and left foot issue, I had to wait in the queue for five minutes. IEC (officials) guided me to the correct queue based on my surname.”

However, he said, the IEC should have interpreters at voting stations to assist them because “voting systems change every five years”.

“It's highly recommended for IEC to arrange the SASL training for all IEC employees so that they will be able to accommodate us, the deaf community.”

Asked whether political parties were doing enough to appeal to the deaf community, Drake said: “Since the president signed the bill of SASL to become the 12th official language in South Africa, I don't see any progress on this one. For other political parties they have done a bit to get us to vote for them such as Employment Equity, better services and so on.”