After he had made his mark, he told journalists his vote was secret, chuckling heartily.
President Jacob Zuma received an ecstatic welcome in Nkandla on Wednesday as he arrived to vote at Ntolwane Primary School.
Ululating crowds jostled to get close to the president and raised their cellphones and tablets to snap photos.
Zuma stood in the voting queue with ordinary South Africans at the KwaZulu-Natal polling station.
Wearing a lightly checked cream jacket and pale mauve shirt, he was full of smiles as he slotted his ballot papers into the correct boxes.
After he had made his mark, he told journalists his vote was secret, chuckling heartily.
“The results will be very good,” he told reporters scrambling to get a comment from him.
Zuma simply laughed.
He urged voters to go out and cast their vote as it was “probably the most important thing to do in this democracy.”
Zuma then took an impromptu walk around.
He exited the school grounds with a posse of his security personnel in pursuit, desperately trying to keep supporters and scores of journalists and photographers at bay.
He spoke briefly to African National Congress personnel at a stand that had been set up outside the school.
As he proceeded to his car, he waved to the throng of singing supporters that had surrounded his car.
Barely 40 minutes before Zuma cast his vote, the woman who was given a house some 500 metres from Zuma’s controversial Nkandla residence by EFF supporters cast her ballot.
S’Thandiwe Hlongwane was in a jovial mood when she arrived at Ntolwane Primary School in KwaNxamalala, Nkandla.
After emerging from her voting booth, she hauled out her Economic Freedom Fighters beret.
The headpiece perfectly matched her smart black skirt and red shirt and blazer.
Broadcast vans from news stations were parked outside the school in anticipation of Zuma’s arrival mid-morning.
After news reports of the house, a dispute arose over whether Hlongwane was in fact as poor as the EFF had claimed, because her husband reportedly had a job as an archivist in the department of arts and culture.
Source – sowetanlive