Andile Qolo, Nyanga
Let me take this time to thank many South Africans who have fulfilled their obligation and right to cast their vote for a political party of their own choice.
This is one of the imperative methods to strengthen and build our democracy.
Also, I must thank political parties for allowing this process to be fair and progressive.For many countries, democracy is just a term, but not practice on the ground. I’m glad we have minimised the so-called “no-go zone areas”.
As South Africans, we have matured enough to understand that “freedom of choice” is a right, not a privilege.
I’m happy that the majority of us have understood that this process is not to be disturbed by acts of mass demonstration of toy-toying, as the IEC can’t resolve those.
Now that we have made our mark, we must know that our role is not over.
Whatever political party wins the elections, we must keep it accountable.
We must know it will not just represent those voted for it, but all of us, be it at provincial or national level.
For this democracy to be strong enough, we must be active in reporting everything from potholes to corruption. Nothing must be “it’s their problem, not mine”.
From local councillor to the president, they must get our complaints and compliments.
Activism citizenship requires us to continuously write or phone our constituency parliament heads to visit our local structures every Monday, as it is parliamentary procedure to do so.
We must not allow them to not report back. Our vote meant we were giving them a mandate; now we want an action plan.