Voting came to a temporary stop at the Transvaal Automobile Club in Houghton, Johannesburg, when South Africa’s favourite pensioner, former president Nelson Mandela, cast his vote in front of a packed media gallery.
Nearly 100 journalists and photographers witnessed Mandela cast his vote in the presence of IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam and tell a live SABC broadcast that ”I voted for you”, when he was asked, tongue in cheek, who he had voted for.
Outside, a queue several hundred long snaked its way around the block. Spotted in the crowd was Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni.
Mandela was wearing a grey Madiba shirt with his trademark Aids badge pinned to it and was walking with the aid of a cane and his personal assistant Zelda La Grange.
He expressed his surprise to see so many media and said if he had known, he would have dressed more smartly.
Asked how it felt to be able to vote for only the third time in his life, the 85-year old, said ”I feel elated as I am able to vote again.”
Asked about the progress of the election, Bam said initial reports were that things were going ”amazingly well”. At some voting stations, she said, voters had started queuing from before dawn. Bam said 20-million voters were registered for Wednesday’s general election. – Sapa