South Africa's 'born-frees' cast first ballots

Nervous but excited, South Africa's "born-free" generation voted for the first time yesterday, with many still expressing a deep gratitude to the ruling African National Congress for leading the struggle against apartheid.
"It feels good that I am voting for the first time and I am proud that I will be voting for the ANC," said 20-year-old Nonhlahla Nkomo.
"It deserves my vote. I am in a free South Africa because of the ANC," said Nkomo, a beauty therapy student.
At Orlando West school, a stone's throw from former president and ANC leader Nelson Mandela's Soweto township house, a handful of young South Africans joined their parents and grandparents in queues to cast ballots in the country's fifth democratic elections.
The minimum voting age is 18 and with South Africa's democracy turning 20 this year around two million "born frees" -- those who have no memory of apartheid -- were eligible to vote for the first time.
But only a third of that generation -- around 646,000 -- bothered to register to cast their ballots.
Although they have no personal experience of life under the former racist white minority regime, they are daily reminded of those dark days, especially those growing up in Soweto, a former hotbed of the liberation struggle.
Many blacks from impoverished backgrounds have benefited from social grants and education loans introduced by the ANC government.
"ANC is the reason I have been able to go to school," said Lehlogonolo Gumede, a 23-year-old BA student. "And I am voting for Mandela's legacy."
Her friend Dinah Gumede, 19, thinks no other party has the capacity to govern South Africa.
"It's ANC which has got the capital. It's big, it's got the resources to change things -- that is if it sticks to its manifestos," she said.
Lesedi Nene, 19, from Orlando West, said: "I am kind of nervous, thinking 'Have I made a good decision or not?'"
Nene says his history studies have guided his vote: "Now I can see the difference, and that's why I just feel I have done the right thing to vote for the ANC."
There was no doubt who University of Johannesburg's 19-year-old finance student Katlego Mafereka had voted for when he stepped out of the polling station laughing at some of the party names on the long ballot paper bearing 29 political parties.
"Some of those names are just there to fill up the ballot paper. I voted ANC because it has most of the people who sacrificed their lives for freedom," he said.
- 'Overwhelmed, celebrating' -
Although she was born five years before the dawn of democracy, Sharon Motsapi, voted for the first time on Wednesday, her 25th birthday.
"I am overwhelmed. I am celebrating my vote, I am celebrating my country," she said jumping and screaming with joy.
"I voted for the ANC, I was groomed by my dad, everything he fought for, everything that he was, it was all about the ANC. I did it for him."
Despite corruption scandals enveloping the ANC and rising anger among the poor, the party is expected to win more than 60 percent of the popular vote, returning President Jacob Zuma for a second five-year term.
But the party is also likely to see its share of the vote slide for a second successive election.
Justine Lengane, stands behind his nervous-looking 20-year-old son, reminding him where to mark his ballot.
"None of this EFF thing, you know who to vote for," he said, referring to the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical offshoot of the ANC.
"The track record of the ANC is visible regardless of JZ's face," he said, using the president's initials. "He is just the face for the ANC he is not the body for the ANC."