A vote in remembrance of Durban’s Marchbishop

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Monday.

Election day is finally upon us.

We’ve passed the point of no return. 

The bulk of the voting districts have opened on time; the punters are already in the queues.

Now, all the politicians can do is continue to work their party machines at ward level to make sure they get their people to the polls and get ready for the haggling over the results – which is likely to morph into coalition talks once the leader boards start to solidify on Tuesday.

Perhaps it’s the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown – or the fact that we’re on the last day of a long weekend – but the voting at the bulk of the polling stations around ward 33 got off to a pretty mellow start.

Not much in the way of queues – certainly none of the mad rush to the polls that I’d expected from the number of daily complaints on the ward’s WhatsApp group – or in the way of unhappy citizens wanting to close down the polling stations.

There’s still time…

Instead of standing around in the sun waiting for the head of state – or a former head of state or some would-be head of state – to cast their vote at a school they won’t visit until the next election, I spent most of the morning at the Denis Hurley Centre, waiting for members of the city’s homeless population to vote.

The Denis Hurley Centre is – like Denis Hurley himself – legit.

The centre provides cooked meals and social services and Covid-19 vaccine and work opportunities – and love – to people nobody else could be bothered about. 

Hurley was a top man: a real “Marchbishop”, at a time when his purple cassock prevented bullets. When Hurley got too old to march, he’d drive in front of the comrades in his Toyota Corolla.

The Hurley Centre first became a voting station for the homeless in 2019. Today, it’s helped restore the franchise of 250 people who the world had forgotten about.

Respect.

I still haven’t decided who to vote for – or whether I trust any of the parties enough to actually bring myself to make my mark next to them on a ballot paper.

I had the same problem in 2016 – and in 2019.

The issues which made me question whether or not to vote are still there, but the visit to the Hurley Centre suddenly has me questioning my cynicism.

There’s still time to do my civic duty before the polls close at 9pm – even if it is to vote for the Oneness Holistic Movement.