Frustrated “Cde” at a voter registration center
Trying to beat the 24 June voter registration deadline for my area, I decided to sacrifice my weekend booze and social soccer and be a responsible citizen by adding my name to the voters’ roll.
My voter registration ordeal started on Saturday at around 7:37 am. There I was with my beanie and tracksuit on to beat the morning chill. Trying to be the early bird I headed to the community hall and during this time of electioneering, I came across a pickup truck full of young fellas waving the national colors heading the same direction as me. As I was about to approach the hall the cheering coming from the pickup truck became louder. I could see the young goons in the truck vigorously waving clenched fists at me shouting “Cde Cde zvamauya zvanaka!” I wasn’t going for a rally so how could they start chanting a song to welcome me, instantly granting war credentials to warrant a Cdeship title. By ignoring the gestures I was about to draw attention, so here I was clenching my not so strong fist not knowing that I was doing it with the wrong hand. Had these young fellas noticed that would have been another story? I comforted myself by putting the blame on God because He is the one who made me left-handed. The truck was not going to the community hall but rather heading to a nearby crèche where some primary election campaigns were taking place. I guess they assumed that I was dressed up for some toyi- toyi and I was a “Cde”. Well this Cde was on a voter registration mission and had these fellas offered me a ride to go to the registration center I was going to accept the Cdeship offer.
At the registration center a different story unfolded. I couldn’t believe the number I was issued. It was just 8am and already I’m number 287? I waited patiently and I observed the situation to see if it was worth waiting it out. It took me two hours to move 10 places and frustration was starting to creep in, so to kill time I joined a discussion, which was about the frustration people were experiencing at the slow pace of the registration. I moved another three places and by 12:30pm I could not wait any longer. I went home so that I could grab something to eat.
I decided to try my luck on Sunday. I thought I would take advantage of the fact that some people would have preferred to go to church but it was worse than I thought as I found myself number 348 in the queue. The queue was not moving and every now and then I could see people tagging along claiming they were in front of me. I got frustrated waiting and I also felt cheated. So desperate time calls for desperate action! In a matter of moments my number 348 turned into 48 as I tagged along like how the other guys in the queue had been doing since morning. I decided to stay low and move along with the commotion till I got inside and it worked. As I was about to leave the hall at around 330pm I tried to imagine if those at number 300 and something were going to be served, or whether they were going to resort to what I had done.
Or get frustrated and leave like what I did on Saturday.