My voting experience

During the time leading up to South Africa's 2014 Elections we were bombarded with information from different parties. (Sometimes I found the mudslinging between representatives of different parties ridiculous.)

So, as a normal South African, I don't go into detail about what each party is about. I don't read their manifests. In fact, I knew long ago who I was going to vote for and why - and I stuck to that.

I found the debates and interviews on "RSG Praat saam" and E-TV's "Dagbreek" extremely interesting. I learned more about what each party stands for and how they intend to solve / approach the problems in our country.

My vote was based on my personal opinion, which is:

• The ruling party(ANC) has had 20 years to show us that they can successfully run the country. Although they have done many wonderful things (e.g. building RDP houses) - most of the attention is drawn to corruption. And we are not talking small change.
• Some of the things I recently heard in the media is the R50 000 that the premier of the Northern Cape spend on her official credit card on take-aways. (How is it possible for ONE person to eat R50 000's take-aways in a year?) Of course she can buy food on her credit card when she travels for official business, but R50 000? 
• Another is of course the whole Nkandla matter. Better security measures were needed at the president's holiday home, since his home was burnt twice and his wife raped. But R246 billion? Where did the money come from? From each South African. Our tax money was used to do extensive upgrades (some necessary and some luxurious) to the president's PRIVATE property. If it was state ground, people wouldn't even have worried about it. It also makes me think - where did they take that money from? Obviously they had to re-allocate money in the budget for this project.
• I also find the whole affirmative action idea ridiculous. It is now 20 years later. We are past the race issue. Appoint the person with the best qualification and ability.
• One of the party's (VF+) slogan is "We do what we say." Although I didn't vote for them, I particularly likes this statement. Especially because they really did what they said in the past and made a huge difference in some South Africans' lives. My problem with them is that I don't believe that they will include all kinds of South Africans in their repertoire. To me they are more a white Afrikaans-speaking group. And statistically white Afrikaans-speaking people are in the minority.
• The DA showed how they can successfully run a province. That doesn't mean that there weren't many problems or that they didn't make a lot of mistakes - but surely more things went right than before. I am impressed with how they have done things in my province.

So I voted for DA - to keep our matters in our province running smoothly. And I hope that they can create more jobs, as they have said. I also think that they are the party that can include most South Africans (all races, social standing, languages, etc.).

Whether we think we made the correct vote or not, the fact that we voted means that we have an influence on what is happening in our country. Every vote counts and make a difference. (If you didn't vote, you can't complain!)

So, we are waiting in suspense for the final results. Exciting times. And we hope that the next 5 years will be better than the previous 5 years. Yes, I have hope and I love South Africa. I will never live anywhere else than right here!

[PS: I'm always scared to air personal opinions on "official stuff" on social media / internet - since I'm always scared that people will sue you if you say something that isn't entirely true. But all the ideas above are things that I heard in the media and hopefully they are true and I didn't say anything wrong.]