Kirstie Paulse
Safety and Security, and the future of the youth were on the mind of 36-year-old Kariega resident, Rene' Hendricks.
She spent about an hour in the queue at the Seagulls Primary School in Rosedale on Monday morning, where she cast her ballot.
The voting station is a stone's throw away from the area where three people were shot and killed and three others wounded in suspected gang shootings on Saturday night.
Two men were arrested and are due to appear in court on Tuesday.
Hendricks told Algoa FM News that she was hoping that the party she voted for would win and make the changes that she would like to see.
“It is very important, especially if we want to see change and especially if we raise children," she said.
Hendricks said the society that we are living in was very violent and “we don't see the change that we want. One of the main issues is for the change that I want to see in the community and it's affecting the young people."
She said not enough was being done for the youth of Kariega.
Meanwhile, the focus in the Eastern Cape was squarely on Nelson Mandela Bay where the Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress were pushing for majority wins.
The Metro is being hotly contested by 26 parties and 16 independent candidates, which an analyst says could once more lead to Nelson Mandela Bay being governed by a coalition.
DA mayoral candidate and current mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, said however that it would be possible to gain a 50% plus 1 majority if all their members went out to vote.
ANC provincial leader, Oscar Mabuyane, was also confident that the governing party would regain control of Nelson Mandela Bay, after losing out in 2016.
He said he believed the governing party was on the right track this time around and is on a path of renewal.
The Independent Electoral Commission said that voting in the 2021 Municipal Elections got off to a smooth start “at almost all voting stations”.
"The vast majority of the country's 23 148 voting stations reported being open on time at 7 am and that voting was flowing smoothly," the IEC said in a statement.
"The Electoral Commission said it was particularly encouraged that many voting stations reported strong turnouts from early in the day with many voters already waiting to vote before the 7 am opening."
It said, "delays in voting were reported in less than one percent of voting stations due to a variety of circumstances including tents being blown over by high winds overnight and the late arrival of election staff and voting materials in a few voting stations."
The IEC also said a presiding officer in eThekwini Metro in Durban was arrested for stuffing marked ballots into a ballot box.
