South Africans vote in crucial election for the ANC
South Africa’s official unemployment rate rose to almost 33% in the first quarter of this year, and the cost of living is also high with many families struggling to survive.
After a delay of around 40 minutes, voting got underway in downtown Johannesburg’s Joubert Park polling station – the biggest in South Africa with more than 16,000 voters.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) got a majority at this polling station in the 2019 election, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
The queues are orderly – and getting longer, though people are expressing frustration with the slow pace of voting.
There is only one voter showing his political allegiance by wearing a T-shirt of former President Jacob Zuma’s new party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).
He won’t give me his name or let me photograph him, but he says: “Even if Zuma was corrupt, things were better under him. The economy is worse now and there are fewer jobs.”
An official inquiry found widespread corruption during Mr Zuma’s nine-year presidency, which ended in 2018.
He denies any wrongdoing, and caused a major shock by campaigning for MK in this election, ditching the governing African National Congress (ANC).
South Africa’s official unemployment rate rose to almost 33% in the first quarter of this year, and the cost of living is also high with many families struggling to survive.
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