YOUR VOTE, YOUR RIGHT!

Today 18^th May I participated in the municipal elections, the last time I voted was in 2009. After the results of 2009 came out, I thought to myself why on earth was I interested in politics. One of the questions the youth of South Africa individually ask themselves, till I listened to Zwelindzima Vavia last night. I learnt and appreciated that voting is a right, a right that many of our ancestors, fallen heroes fought for. They fought in the struggle of apartheid so that young women like me and you can be able to queue one day in a room full of white and black people waiting to exercise our rights as South African citizens. This year South Africa will be celebrating the 55^th anniversary of the women’s anti pass laws to the Union buildings in Pretoria. There were 20 000 women who marched to the union buildings, protesting against legislation control over black women in urban areas. They challenged the idea that a women’s place is in the kitchen instead of elsewhere. Today black women are successful business women; today we are students in highly recommended institutions. I quote Vavi, “Today women do not have to write letters to their husbands in the mines and say, Tata kabana siyalamba ekhaya. Those days are gone.”   Who knows, what would have happened if those women did not stand for their rights?  Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Ruth First among many other women went to the union buildings carrying babies on their backs, some were in fear and some were not just taking a stand for themselves but for you and me. This march did not just make a difference in South Africa but Im sure in other countries that discriminated against women. We today’s generation should be happy we live in a liberated South Africa. Free to vote, free to have an education, free to just swim in a beach, free from so many boundaries that were present in the apartheid era. Voting can be considered as a thank you to all those who died, struggled and were tortured.  The youth of today is too comfortable because they have never felt the pain and suffering. Thank you to those who voted and showed a sign of appreciation.

The change can only start with us or things will never be right...............