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Elderly people from Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal remember the first democratic elections in 1994. 77-year-old Cynthia Nyembe and 62-year-old Thomas Lwenda say black people were excited to vote for the first time.

“In the shops, you were not allowed to fit. After 1994 you could go and fit in. It’s either you take it or when you say you were not allowed to fit actually. So I appreciate that because now it puts us more on the same level. We can never be on the same level, but in the eyes of God we are all the same,” says Nyembe.

However, amid the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal at the time, Lwenda did not vote due to fear.

“Yes, they were very excited. But you know, I don’t know if I was scared or something, you know it was a new thing, what’s gonna happen when I vote, whose gonna see me, and you know. And remember those days when there was political violence and so on. So that also scared me.”

The 80-year-old Santie Botha recounts the uncertainty among some white people about what was to follow. Some even stockpiling food.

“I think some were afraid and some were excited because people were uncertain. But I never stockpiled tinned food because I always say God is in charge no matter what.”

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