Well-known Pretoria-based social media influencer Irvin Mashele, who is is selling atchar in the street intersections, says he would rather go fishing than wait in a queue for a chance to vote.
Fondly known to his customers as ‘Chairman Atchar’, Mashele is always immaculately dressed in a suit as he sells his atchar to motorists and passers-by at the road intersections.
Born in Winterveldt and now residing in Soshanguve, Mashele is loved by his customers because of his colourful personality and for always sharing motivational speeches with them while he plies his trade.
On Wednesday, he opted not to join millions of South Africans when they headed to different polling stations to cast their ballots during the general elections.
In a video clip circulating on social media he declared his decision to desist from voting, bemoaning the fact that he was not roped into campaigns of any of the political parties in the run-up to elections.
“I am an influencer and I have more than eight years selling atchar in the streets and there has not been a single party that identified the chairman,” he said.
He said if political parties deemed him that important in society they would have approached him with a view to ask him to assist them in their elections campaigns for votes.
“They would have at least asked me to accompany them to Jukulyn and tell voters about their parties and what they stand for,” he said.
He highlighted the irony of being promised jobs by political party volunteers despite the fact that they were also struggling to get jobs.
“I am not going to be told by a party volunteer that the government was promising to create jobs, while he is not working,” he said.
As far as he was concerned he was not going to be swayed to vote by politicians who would forget about their promises to him soon after the elections.
He said the reason politicians would want to persuade him to vote was because they knew that they would reap the rewards through the votes while won’t benefit anything from the voting exercise.
“Tomorrow we will see them showing off their posts while at Louis Vuitton (stores) while I am here enduring the sun heat,” he said.
Mashele remarked that voting was "out of fashion in South Africa" and that he would rather "go fishing" instead of standing in queues waiting for a chance to vote.
Pretoria News