A line.

Safari tours in Cape Town weren’t running on Wednesday the 22nd of April. In fact, the drivers, game rangers, owners and hoteliers weren’t at work. Collectively, the whole of Cape Town came to a standstill. Where on earth was everyone?

They were queuing. They queued in the freezing morning, and watched as the dominating Table Mountain was bathed in a warm glow of orange as the sun came up. Over 23 million South Africans voted across the country on Wednesday, with over two million of them in Cape Town. Any holiday maker having a tour of Cape Town would have spotted long, snaking lines coming out of churches, temporary tents and community halls as South Africans prepared to make their mark and have their fingernails stained with indelible ink.

There was a “carnival atmosphere” in town that day, with everyone cheerful as we celebrated the freedom of our fourth democratic elections. Not since the first free elections in 1994 had South Africa seen the type of voting queues that happened on the 22nd of April. Cape Town voted in favour of the Democratic Alliance, some 51% of the population voted for that party. The ruling party, the ANC came in at 31% in the province, but, as expected, the ANC won the general elections with 66% of the votes. They did, however, lose their two-thirds majority in Parliament, with the DA creeping steadily upwards to greet them.

As usual, the elections passed without a hitch, although some political parties complained of injustices (when do they not, though). Some strange happenings occurred across the country; however, with a few ballot boxes being found already full of marked ballots prior to the election starting! Here in Cape Town, the Du Noon election officer was a little stumped when asked how the voting turnout had been. He replied that there had been no turnouts; in fact it had been completely peaceful. He seemed to think the journalist meant “turn-away”!

Although you aren’t guaranteed to see animals when on Safari tours, watch our politics for some real wildlife action!