Local Elections 2011

Between 22 April and 18 May 2011 we had four public holidays. This sort of thing makes my US colleagues very envious, a little angry and most of all, somewhat suspicious - like we're pulling the wool or taking the piss. But we aren't - they just happened. And the last was the best because it was a Wednesday - I love Wednesday holidays because you can get a lot done on Monday and Tuesday, have a good break on Wednesday and then put in a good spurt again before the weekend. I think there is a good case for making them a permanent feature of our monthly calendar. Down with 5 day weeks, say !. Of course we all work through our holidays and weekends anyway, but that is beside the point - at least we can do it from the comfort of our bedrooms.

Wednesday was Local Elections 2011 voting day. I have lost track of elections but I guess there was one in 2006, 2001 and 1996. I don't remember 1996 - we must have been in KZN. Maybe we voted. The princesses would have been very young. One of the others I missed because my ID document had gone missing, presumed stolen (actually turned out I had misplaced it). 17 years after the advent of democracy in SA we still get sufficiently excited about voting to at least make it down to the Civic Centre to make our crosses. Well, I do anyway. And two thirds of Cape Town did this year as well. Political talk dominated our  coffee machine social circle and the airwaves for a couple of weeks before the big day, so we were well primed. I was disappointed that no-one phoned or came round to ask me to vote for their party. Maybe they did and we just weren't in.

The day before the elections I went onto the IEC website to check that I was registered. I was, as was herself. I also downloaded and printed the list of candidates for the ward vote and the list of parties for the proportional representation vote. That was a shock. I had never heard of any of the candidates and I had never heard of at least half the parties. My fault I guess - should have attended those meetings, read those articles and listened to those programs. The result was that by the time I got to the polling station I hadn't altogether made up my mind whom to vote for.

The morning dawned bright and beautiful. We took full advantage and got in a lie-in, and a morning gym session before heading for the booths along with Princess Firstborn - her first vote. There was a fairly lengthy queue of people but it appeared to be moving and everyone seemed to be in a tolerably good mood with one or two noticeable exceptions - the tall fellow with dreadlocks who was manning one of the party tables looked like he had dropped a 100 rand note and picked up half a cent, and a lady who had failed to register and was now trying to make it the problem of the electoral officer.

We shuffled forward slowly, enjoying the sunshine and the vibe. A very old lady came out, helped by a nurse and we moved aside to let her through. "Thank you", she said. "Thank you", I returned, "for taking the trouble to come out and vote". "Young man", she said, "at my age, my vote is worth a million rands!" Couldn't quite follow the logic of that but I said "Good for you!" anyway.

A car drew up with an elderly couple in the back seat. The driver got out and opened the door - he was presumably a younger friend or relative. Mr Dreadlocks immediately sprang into action and started moving them towards the front of the queue. The driver said something about "You'll have to fight to get them to the front" to which he replied loudly "No problem, I've been fighting for liberation my whole bloody life". He looked about 25! And the point was that noone there would so much as thought of not letting them jump the queue. Idiot. Well that made my mind up - I voted for the other party.

The princess was a little overawed by the occasion. Not sure what she expected - tick the wrong box and the men in masks spring out and carry you away? The staff were all very friendly and helpful and very soon we were in the booths and making our marks, placing our papers in the boxes and leaving the station. My vote was one in a million cast in the province, I believe. So you could say it didn't matter. It certainly wouldn't have mattered in my ward, where the winning candidate got 92% of the vote, if I had stayed in bed. In a way, one votes mainly for one's own benefit - one gives oneself the right to crticise the government of the day, if one has participated in the election. If one hasn't, one should shut up. At least, that is my view.

Civic duty done for another 3 years - I went back to bed. When the results came out I emailed the Handsome Masha to ask how his "Trotskyist End Necrophilia Party" had done - he said they had been too poor to stand, but next time ...