{"id":230804,"date":"2022-07-08T12:26:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T10:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/no-water-in-kariega-township-causes-stink-for-some-pensioners-at-voting-polls\/"},"modified":"2022-07-08T12:26:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T10:26:28","slug":"kariega-by-election-i-voted-without-taking-a-bath-i-was-stinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/kariega-by-election-i-voted-without-taking-a-bath-i-was-stinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Kariega by-election: \u201cI voted without taking a bath. I was stinking!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a><\/p>\n

Columbus Mahlahla from Khayelitsha in Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) says he went to the polls in Ward 43 without having washed because there has been no water in his ward for two months. Photo: Thamsanqa Mbovane<\/p>\n

Pensioners from Khayelitsha township in Kariega say they went to the polls on Wednesday \u201cstinking\u201d because they have been without water for two months.<\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela Bay held its by-elections for Ward 43 following the death of councillor Andile Andries who was shot dead in May. This ward is being contested by the ANC, EFF, UDM, United Front, ActionSA and Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I voted without taking a bath. I was stinking,\u201d said 79-year-old Columbus Mahlahla.<\/p>\n

Only he and his wife went to vote. \u201cAll my ten children didn\u2019t vote. They were angry and said \u2018no water, no vote\u2019. They told me to refrain from voting too,\u201d said Mahlahla. He said the voting station at the Methodist Church near his home was practically empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only have 20 litres of drinking water at my house. I depend on my children to collect water for us from a leaking pipe in the bush. They often remind me of the poor services we get here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ntombizine Zelani said a taxi was arranged to transport her and other voters to the Sikhothina voting district. She too had to vote without having bathed. \u201cI didn\u2019t wash myself because my tap is dry. My 19-year-old granddaughter told me \u2018no water, no vote\u2019. She showed me empty water bottles and said: \u2018Grandma, you keep voting for people who don\u2019t deliver any service, abstain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not have voted if they didn\u2019t fetch me with the taxi,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

By Friday morning, it was not clear which political party had come won the by-election.<\/p>\n

IEC spokesperson Julie Stanworth said they were experiencing \u201ctechnical challenges\u201d with the system. But she said \u201cwe are assured\u201d that they would be resolved shortly.<\/p>\n

GroundUp has published many reports on protests and complaints by residents of Kariega over their water woes and fight for other services like electricity. In April, we reported<\/a> that schools in the town had to close early because of the water outages. At the time, municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki blamed a six-year drought and high water usage for the shortages.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columbus Mahlahla from Khayelitsha in Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) says he went to the polls in Ward 43 without having washed because there has been no water in his ward for two months. Photo: Thamsanqa Mbovane Pensioners from Khayelitsha township in Kariega say they went to the polls on Wednesday \u201cstinking\u201d because they have been without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-230804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/kariega-by-election-i-voted-without-taking-a-bath-i-was-stinking.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}