# Why you should vote in next week's municipal elections: Before You Sit This One Out

An episode of [Afternoon Drive with John Maytham](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1212305258), 27 Oct 2026, 9:06.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/1951050295/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5dcefa8e-00a9-4595-8ce1-a4ab0080f142/e2113905-04ff-472c-9fff-a6cd00b63b20/059673d0-ce8d-42fd-a74a-b4f000de64c0/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=cab9ce5d-42b6-4239-9177-a6cd00b6d1ff

John Maytham speaks to writer and academic, Antjie Krog, about why South Africans should make an effort to go out next Wednesday and vote in the municipal elections. Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30pm. CapeTalk fans call in, to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 15:00 and 18:00 (SA Time) to Afternoon Drive with John Maytham broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/BSFy4Cn or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/n8nWt4x Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: The polls open for our local government elections 2026 in
[0:04] Speaker 1: seven days, 15 hours and 41 minutes. I plan to
[0:08] Speaker 1: be at my local polling station. It's about a 20,
[0:11] Speaker 1: 25 minute walk from where I live. So nice. Early
[0:14] Speaker 1: morning stroll, be there before 7 o'clock so I can
[0:18] Speaker 1: get the business done and dusted ASAP. And then spend
[0:22] Speaker 1: much of the rest of the day driving around. Maybe
[0:25] Speaker 1: I should rethink given the cost of petrol. Maybe I
[0:28] Speaker 1: can claim it back from expenses, the company. I don't know.
[0:31] Speaker 1: I'll talk to them. Because I do like to see
[0:34] Speaker 1: polling stations. I don't like to see long queues, but
[0:37] Speaker 1: in a way they reflect a desire to vote. And
[0:41] Speaker 1: then from three o'clock in the afternoon, back on air,
[0:44] Speaker 1: but from the IEC center out in Century City. And
[0:50] Speaker 1: I am not as excited to vote as I was
[0:53] Speaker 1: in 1994. I was very, very excited going into that
[0:57] Speaker 1: box and picking up the paper and the pen and
[0:59] Speaker 1: my hands were shaking. And I had to take a
[1:02] Speaker 1: deep breath before I could steady my hand enough to
[1:04] Speaker 1: make my cross. And I don't get nearly as excited
[1:08] Speaker 1: these days but i still think it's important that i
[1:11] Speaker 1: vote and we know that a majority of south africans
[1:15] Speaker 1: don't think it's worthwhile voting and kind of trying our
[1:20] Speaker 1: best to persuade them to have a little rethink and
[1:24] Speaker 1: helping me in the project this afternoon is writer and
[1:29] Speaker 1: academic what a what a brilliant writer anki kroch is
[1:32] Speaker 1: uh hello anki hello john How are you? I'm, yeah.
[1:41] Speaker 1: I just wish our country was in better shape and
[1:43] Speaker 1: I wish our people were more motivated to vote.
[1:48] Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, it's also understandable why there is a reluctance.
[1:54] Speaker 2: But one should think broader than that democracy hasn't brought
[1:59] Speaker 2: me anything. You know, I think it's what most young
[2:02] Speaker 2: people are saying. But, yeah, you must remember it's 300
[2:06] Speaker 2: years that people were dying, enduring, fighting to get a vote.
[2:12] Speaker 2: So to just discard it now as useless is a pity.
[2:21] Speaker 1: People, there will be different reasons for not voting. Somebody
[2:24] Speaker 1: who is very successful in business and lives in a
[2:28] Speaker 1: fancy house in, I don't know, Upper Constantia will have
[2:31] Speaker 1: a very different reason from not voting. from somebody who
[2:35] Speaker 1: lives in Khayelitsha, who has been promised the world by
[2:39] Speaker 1: political parties since 1994 and hasn't even had the tiniest
[2:43] Speaker 1: slice of that world delivered. But essentially, it all comes
[2:46] Speaker 1: down to not believing that the act of voting is
[2:50] Speaker 1: in any way meaningful. And how does one change that?
[2:53] Speaker 1: How do you say to the reluctant, actually, it is
[2:58] Speaker 1: worth it?
[3:00] Speaker 2: We had a sort of slogan in Afrikaans years back,
[3:07] Speaker 2: done by a poet, Gea Waterbeer, Hand wat die kruisie
[3:11] Speaker 2: maak is hand wat aan die toekomst raak. So I
[3:14] Speaker 2: translated it to hand that makes the cross is hand
[3:18] Speaker 2: that determine who will be the boss. And that's the thing.
[3:24] Speaker 2: I mean, to burn down something will for a short
[3:28] Speaker 2: while change something. But it's only through voting. And for
[3:33] Speaker 2: the first time, I think this election proves the power of,
[3:39] Speaker 2: you can see how nervous all the political parties are.
[3:42] Speaker 2: Because in decades, they haven't thought we are really important.
[3:48] Speaker 2: And now they realize we are. And we should keep it.
[3:52] Speaker 2: We should keep that right to vote and to vote
[3:54] Speaker 2: them out. Even, you know, John, even if you find
[3:59] Speaker 2: none of the parties, if you trust none of them,
[4:02] Speaker 2: I think one should go and spoil then your stem briefing.
[4:08] Speaker 2: I mean, during apartheid, I voted, but I always spoiled
[4:13] Speaker 2: my vote and wrote on it what I would like.
[4:17] Speaker 2: You know, this is not democratic or where is the
[4:21] Speaker 2: ANC or, you know, you make your point on it.
[4:24] Speaker 2: even if it's ignored, but they have to count all
[4:27] Speaker 2: the spoiled votes as well.
[4:31] Speaker 1: Yeah, and I can't, whenever we get to an election,
[4:35] Speaker 1: I can't help but remember back to 1994 and the
[4:38] Speaker 1: joyous chaos of that vote. And I remember, I've told
[4:42] Speaker 1: the story on the radio before about a man at
[4:47] Speaker 1: Baragwanath Hospital, as it was then called, special vote before
[4:52] Speaker 1: official voting began and he had elephantiasis and each of
[4:56] Speaker 1: his fingers was the size of a large banana. And
[4:59] Speaker 1: so he was offered the opportunity to have somebody he
[5:02] Speaker 1: trusts go into the ballot box with him and have
[5:05] Speaker 1: that person make the cross because it was incredibly difficult
[5:08] Speaker 1: for him to grasp a pen. And he said, no,
[5:11] Speaker 1: I don't care if it takes me 10 minutes, I
[5:14] Speaker 1: am going to make my cross myself. And it's just,
[5:19] Speaker 1: I mean, It was a very special occasion. But people
[5:22] Speaker 1: are voting in Israel today with a huge amount of passion.
[5:25] Speaker 1: They voted in Brazil with a huge amount of passion.
[5:29] Speaker 1: They brought down right-wing rule in Serbia over the weekend
[5:33] Speaker 1: by going out to vote.
[5:35] Speaker 2: The U.S.
[5:36] Speaker 1: Has midterm elections on Tuesday next week. And there's as
[5:42] Speaker 1: much at stake for us as there are for those countries.
[5:49] Speaker 1: They are voting, we must too. We must.
[5:53] Speaker 2: And I'm looking at France where the youth started burning
[5:56] Speaker 2: because of the schools and the conditions there. And I'm thinking, why?
[6:00] Speaker 2: It's a democratic country. So the moment you do that,
[6:05] Speaker 2: you are being listened to for a short while. The
[6:08] Speaker 2: government now gives a little bit of money, but what
[6:11] Speaker 2: is going to happen is that the right wing is
[6:13] Speaker 2: going to be voted in France next year. So you
[6:18] Speaker 2: score a little bit, but in the end, all the
[6:21] Speaker 2: terrible other things that you have fought your whole life
[6:24] Speaker 2: against just become sharper and bigger.
[6:31] Speaker 1: Anki, friends, colleagues, family members, neighbors, acquaintances, are you picking
[6:38] Speaker 1: up amongst those people an unwillingness or a lack of
[6:44] Speaker 1: enthusiasm about voting?
[6:48] Speaker 2: Not really. I think there's, in general, nervousness that, you know,
[6:56] Speaker 2: no one actually knows what's going to happen and you
[6:58] Speaker 2: don't know if all the polls are correct. So people
[7:02] Speaker 2: are going to vote. But what I've found among students
[7:06] Speaker 2: is that democracy has brought me nothing. So why, why,
[7:12] Speaker 2: why would I care? And it's to change that, it's
[7:16] Speaker 2: to say, okay, it brought you nothing, but if you
[7:18] Speaker 2: don't vote, it's going to take away even what you
[7:23] Speaker 2: think you have.
[7:25] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, how do you bring about change if
[7:27] Speaker 1: you don't vote? And some of the more militant of
[7:31] Speaker 1: them will be going, well, revolution will bring about change,
[7:35] Speaker 1: but the kind of revolution that might happen in South Africa,
[7:39] Speaker 1: the burning more than we've burnt before kind of revolution
[7:42] Speaker 1: isn't going to bring about sustained change which will improve
[7:46] Speaker 1: people's lives. So, yeah.
[7:54] Speaker 2: I hear that in Australia, if you're a citizenship, you
[7:58] Speaker 2: have to vote. So it's part of your.
[8:02] Speaker 1: Job.
[8:03] Speaker 2: And you are being arrested if you don't go and vote.
[8:09] Speaker 2: It's part of being a citizen. So that's maybe also
[8:12] Speaker 2: something to consider.
[8:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, we must do something. We must get people back
[8:17] Speaker 1: to the polls so that the governments that are elected, provincial, national, local,
[8:24] Speaker 1: those governments do represent the wishes of a majority of
[8:28] Speaker 1: South Africa's people. At the moment, people are going to
[8:32] Speaker 1: be trying to cobble together coalitions on the basis of
[8:35] Speaker 1: the fact that 29% of the electorate voted for them,
[8:40] Speaker 1: 27 for somebody else. And that's just, that's not right.
[8:44] Speaker 2: No, no, no, no. No, and it's, you know, it's
[8:48] Speaker 2: in your ward, so it should be close enough. May
[8:56] Speaker 2: we pull through, but in large numbers.
[9:00] Speaker 1: May we pull through in large numbers indeed, writer and
[9:03] Speaker 1: academic Ankie Kroog. Bye bye, Ankie.

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