Some residents of Orkney Vaal outside Klerksdorp in the North West are still not sure who they will be voting for or if they will vote at all.
The area has been hard hit by retrenchments on the mines and many families have been forced to sell their belongings and move into tents.
They say they have voted in the past, but their circumstances have not changed.
Forty-seven-year-old Poppie Botha, the wife of a former mine worker who was retrenched six years ago, says she is not positive that her vote will make a difference.
“I am still deciding if I am going to vote because the last time I voted, it did not make any difference because I thought if I go and vote it will make my life better but it didn’t. It went from good to bad and it is just getting worse every time,” says Botha.
Botha’s family is not the only one having a hard time.
“I stay in a three bedroom house which is not expensive, it is R3000 per month but I cannot afford to pay so now my electricity is off and all I am doing is selling my clothes and collecting stuff to sell to live,” says one resident.
Another resident says life has been very tough and feels as though he is failing his children as he is unable to provide for them.
