‘No point in voting,’ says family of woman who died after collapsing while waiting to vote - TimesLIVE

Nomusa Zulu, 63, who died after collapsing at the Shallcross Primary School voting station in Demat, about 20km southwest of the Durban CBD, on Wednesday morning, was laid to rest at Mopel cemetery in Hammarsdale on Saturday.

The former expanded public works programme worker had cleaned the roads in her locality until two years ago when she went on pension.

Her family told TimesLIVE they had to make the funeral arrangements with their meagre resources, without any assistance, messages of condolence or visits from the IEC or any government agency.

For them, that silence has become part of the pain.

Her sister Cynthia said she and members of her family would not bother to vote again.

“There is no point in voting because nobody cares,” Cynthia said.

“She went to vote because she believed her vote would change things. Now we are burying her alone.”

The family said only the MK Party, which won ward 72 where Demat’s Shallcross Primary School voting station was located, that extended visits, condolences and promises to assist the family with funeral arrangements.

Zulu collapsed while standing in the queue at the voting station. She died on arrival at Chatsworth’s RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, about 7km by road from the voting station.

The family says they had to call an e-hailing vehicle themselves to take her there, despite many police vehicles and cars belonging to IEC officials present at the scene.

“No one thought of transporting her to hospital,” a family member said.

Her daughter, Amanda Zulu, said her mother was so excited about going out to vote.

“She normally wakes up at 4am on the voting day, on Wednesday she was up at about 5.30am. By 6.30am she was already pestering me saying ‘We must go early so that we must come back and rest’,” Amanda said.

“At about 7.30am we made our way to the voting station. It took us about 30 minutes because the voting station is far away. When we arrived at the station, officials said, as an elderly person, she must go to the front and vote and she left me in the ordinary queue.

“A few moments later I got a call from one of the neighbours saying I must rush inside the voting station as my mother had collapsed. I hurried in and found her on the floor.”

The family is angry and believe Zulu could have been saved if IEC officials at the station had rushed her to a medical facility. They say the IEC should have ensured there were people with medical training at voting stations.

Previous reports said election observer Pretty Jwarah, who was at the station, said bystanders gave Zulu water, contacted her daughter and called for an ambulance.

On Thursday, provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga confirmed the death and conveyed the IEC’s condolences.