LONDON EX-PATS VOTE
As South Africa House hosts historic moment
15.04.2009This, just in from ex-pat, reader and friend of 2oceansvibe, Johan VZ:
Dear Seth,
I’m sure you’ll get a few of these today but here are a couple of pics of voters queuing up outside South Africa House in London this morning for the first ever overseas vote in the SA elections. A historic moment.
South Africa House, London.
Today
Stunning coat!
I took the photo at 8.55pm just after casting my vote. The voting station opened at 7am – I arrived at 7.10am and just over 1h30m later cast my vote. Hopefully it will make a difference!
Cheers
Johan
Very cool! Thanks for that, Johan!
And good for you, ex-pats!!
UPDATE FROM MALCOLM T IN LONDON
Hey Seth
I am not too sure if you have had any feedback from us South African on Mud Island yet, but we got to vote today, a week earlier than you guys back home.
I thought I’d get there early, 06:45 for the 07:00 AM start to voting which carries on until 21:00 tonight, but it seems like I wasn’t the only one with that in mind. From the photos you can see that the queue was well past The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square already but due to a smooth operation and the friendliest staff in the world, they managed to get us in and out of SA House itself pretty quickly.
Considering that we don’t get a public holiday and most people had to take leave to vote, the turnout was something to be proud of. There were the usual suspects who actually looked like they had escaped The States with their leather cowboy hats and Hi-tech hiking boots with their khaki shorts and Cape Union Mart two-tone shirts. There were SA flags, beanies, rugby jerseys, scarves, but most of all, their was a sense of pride at being able to vote and not being the person who does nothing, but still complains about South Africa.
Cheers for now
Malcs
Beautifully done, Malcolm.
Thanks!
April 15th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I bet the boss upstairs is quaking in his boots. 16,000 registered wordwide is a bit embarrassing. JZ will ensure this doesn’t happen again next time.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I voted today in London & was extremely proud to do so.
The vibe was awesome with the Embassy staff really incredibly helpful and friendly.
As a country we have our problems, but as an example to the rest of the world, today we stood on the shoulders of giants.