As the country gears up for the highly anticipated national elections, some congregants from the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church have changed their minds about not taking part in the May 8th elections.
Earlier this year, some of the congregants vowed not to participate in the upcoming general elections, following the arrest of their controversial pastor, prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife.
The couple were arrested by the Hawks in January on charges of fraud and money laundering.
The controversial pastor and his wife were later released on a R100 000 bail each.
Thomas Baloyi from Hammanskraal says he will cast his vote on Wednesday.
“I will vote … although I haven’t yet decided who to vote for, but definitely on Wednesday I will vote,” explains Baloyi.
Baloyi says he was not happy when the controversial pastor was arrested.
“The charges were created by people who are jealous of our pastor and the courts will clear the Major One when he goes back to court.”
But another congregant, Zamani Mbili from KwaZulu-Natal says for him, voting and not voting is the same thing.
Mbili says he took part in previous elections and nothing changed as he is still unemployed and the government is not doing much to uplift young people in his community.
“I won’t vote. I have voted before and nothing changed, so I won’t waste my time by casting my vote this time. These people only know us when they want our votes, after the elections we won’t see them again,” adds Mbili.
He says if prophet Bushiri was taking part in these elections, he would vote for him.
“Only Major One can get my vote because he is changing lives. He’s praying for us and things are starting to change in our lives,” he adds.
But for Sibongile Ntuli, who comes from Soweto, voting is very important.
Ntuli also attends church services at the AGC church and says she will be going home to Soweto this afternoon, so that she will be able to cast her vote on Wednesday.
“Today is my last day here … who knows maybe my vote will make a difference,” says Ntuli.
Ntuli says she’s been camping at the ECG church at the Pretoria Events Centre for the past few days.
