Geraldine Snyders voted for what she hopes will be a brighter future.
Housewife Geraldine Snyders (49) flashes a big smile that shows off the shiny gold fillings between her front teeth. “I want my children and grandchildren to have a life, like my life was before, over the next five years. There was no gangsterism and drugs,” she says. “That time was quite fine, simply as there were no gangs, there was no shooting.”
The Cape Flats mother and grandmother has placed her faith in the Democratic Alliance (DA) when she voted for what she hoped would be a brighter future on Wednesday.
Standing outside a polling station in Mitchells Plain, Snyders had dressed herself up in a blue DA T-shirt and matching blue shoes. Her braided hair gives her a youthful appeal.
What she wants to see is a life free of drugs, gangsterism and violence, she explains, and her ever-present smile disappears from her face.
“There were some horrific times during the apartheid era, yes, but it did not go on like it does now. People are set alight and murdered. Things did not happen then, like it happen now,” she says. “They murder the children. The kids can’t walk, there are cars that hijack the kids.”
Snyders says there are merchants trying to sell drugs in the street every day in Woodlands in Mitchells Plain, where she lives with her husband and family.
“The children … we are actually worried about the children who grow up in this environment. And the school kids, when the children play in the park, they are at risk. We work in the house and the children go to the park. But at all times you must see where they are.”
Straight and narrow
Snyders has three children, with her youngest Rivaldo still at Woodlands primary school, as well as two grandchildren.
“I am a housewife, but I chose to char as well. I enjoy it. I do it in Claremont and I work for a psychologist. But I still have plenty of time to spend with my children.”
Her eldest child Jerico was kept on the straight and narrow, and away from a life in gangsterism, because she had time for him, she says. Snyders plans to do the same with Rivaldo.
“I always did homework with Jerico and just talked about life. I am doing the same with Rivaldo,” she says. “I also want my grandchildren to have more freedom. In my area, I know my neighbours and they are quite fine. So they can go outside there. But it is not good elsewhere.”
Snyders says she has no problem with spending another five years under President Jacob Zuma.
“He is fine, but I preferred [Nelson] Mandela more than Zuma. Because Mandela did more for the people than he did for himself. Mandela did stuff for the people, and [Thabo] Mbeki was good too. I really admired Mandela but I couldn’t vote for the ANC. For the last five years, I have voted for the DA.”
Employment is a huge concern, says Snyders and, although her eldest son has a job in construction, her daughter Perguallia is unemployed.
“She has a matric, she is 21, but she is still sitting at home. She says if she gets a job, I don’t have to worry and char, and all of that. And she will work to look after me.”
Snyders says she hopes for “everything of the best” for her youngest child. “I hope that God is going to spare me to see him through high school,” she says.
“I would love to see what he does with his life. I have high blood pressure, no other illnesses. I hope that God will spare me so I can see how Rivaldo grows up and what his life is going to be one day when he is a young man.”