While rival political parties went all out to register voters for the 2024 general election, they showed tolerance among each other.
Representatives of the ANC and the EFF have embraced each other regardless of political differences at voting stations across the country.
The leaders of both parties were deployed in Gauteng townships that hold the deciding vote and have a large number of voters.
“We are all Africans, it’s just the party T-shirts that make us different so we should not fight, we all want to live better,” said an EFF activist standing alongside an ANC volunteer.
The ANC volunteer Jake Mmalla said needed to send a message of unity and social cohesion as well as to avoid dividing communities.
“As a party we are all about social cohesion, to tell the people that yes we are in competition but we can’t turn against each other because when the leaders leave we remain with each other here in Alex with our daily struggles,” said Mmalla who occasionally joined in to sing with EFF members who were stationed just a few meters from the ANC registration desk.
EFF Leader Julius Malema visited the station and told a crowd gathered at Dr Knak Primary School in Alexandra to avoid antagonising other parties, a message he’s been preaching at recent meetings of the party’s election structures.
“Let us not disrupt the activities of other parties. Ours is to lobby our people to come out in numbers and vote for the EFF. If you are provoked, report those to the police, avoid confrontation at all times,” said Malema who has vowed to run a “positive campaign”.