‘We are not going to participate in voting today’

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While many South Africans make their way to voting stations today, there are people who have taken the decision not to vote.

Some residents of Rustenburg in the North West are boycotting the elections.

They have instead braced the cold weather to clean their neighbourhood.

The residents of villages that include Lekgalong, Ikageng, Serutubi and Lesung say the government has failed to ensure that they receive basic services such as water and electricity.

They have formed a civic movement called Ward 44 Community Empowerment.

“We as the civic movement of Ward 44 in Rustenburg have embarked on doing a cleaning campaign today on the election day on the 29th, and are not going to vote at all. We are not going to participate in voting today. We have suffered enough as Ward 44. We don’t have roads, we don’t have houses, we don’t have RDPs and our reservoirs are leaking. So we are tired; our youth is not working. The businesses around Ward 44 don’t recognise us. So we have opened a civic movement to make sure that they will recognise us,” says movement leader Professor Kgaladi.

Meanwhile, some sex workers on the streets of Johannesburg say no politicians have come to speak to them during the elections campaigning.

Thuli Sibanyoni – not her real name – has been on the streets for almost three months of the election campaigning.

“So far I have never seen any politician here. For almost three months there were no politicians that have arrived while I was working here,” says Sibanyoni.

2024 Elections | Some residents in Rustenburg resolved to boycott elections