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Jubilation as Hlobi crashes out

26/08/2013 05:32:00 STORIES BY MBONGENI NDLELA

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Minister Hlobisile Ndlovu watching as EBC officers count votes yesterday.

PIGG’S PEAK – This small town was in a jubilant mood yesterday afternoon after Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Hlobisile Ndlovu crashed out of the race to Parliament.

Ndlovu lost out to prominent businessman Jabulani Mabuza. The minister, who had served as Pigg’s Peak Member of Parliament for 10 years, managed to amass 494 votes in the Primary Elections. However, Mabuza, Director of Buy Cash Hardware, tripled this figure and managed to get 1 572 votes – much to the excitement of the voters who had crammed the Pigg’s Peak Town Council building to observe the counting of the votes.
The difference between the minister’s votes and that of Mabuza stood at 1 078. Dumisile Ndlovu, the wife of businessman Absalom Ndlovu, recorded 392 votes while Reggie Lukhele got 199 votes. Dumisile Dlamini got 17 votes and at the bottom of the list was Nhlanhla Mnisi who only got eight votes.

It took EBC officers at least 13 hours to complete the counting of votes in this small town. Counting of votes started at around 2.30am after an hour of rest. This came after the voting exercise, which started on Saturday morning, stretching until after midnight.
Nominees waited all night long to know their fate after over 2 700 people voted.

As the exercise went ahead, over 200 voters peeped through windows outside the council building observing the process. This was because only nominees and their campaign agents (bogalajane) were allowed inside the building. The rest were locked outside.
The counting of votes for MP seemed to be emotional with Mabuza’s name becoming the most famous in the count. One could tell from the pile of votes that was placed before Mabuza that indeed he had done his homework. Interviewed after being announced as the winner, Mabuza said he could only thank God.

“I thank God that the elections went well. I would also like to thank the people of Pigg’s Peak who voted for me. They have shown that they have confidence in what I can do if I can become their MP. In fact, I was also hoping that I would win following that most people I spoke to had predicted my win,” Mabuza said.
“I am a God fearing person,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister Hlobisile walked out of the town council building and held a brief meeting with some of her relatives near the main entrance of the building.

This happened immediately after EBC officers had finished counting her votes and had started counting for Mabuza. She also declined to comment about the outcome of the elections.

Notably, the minister went back inside the building and observed the counting of Mabuza’s votes. It was after the announcing of the votes that the minister quickly met with EBC Commissioner Ncumbi Maziya.