It is still yet to be determined whether the claim came from a place of ignorance on the electoral officer’s part.
South Africa’s Opposition Leader Julius Malema fumed at an electoral official at the polling station after demanding that his wife removes fake nails before being allowed to cast her vote.
Malema who is contesting for the country’s top seat in the ongoing elections, said the officer violated his wife’s rights and he could not allow such incidents to happen.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader who cast his vote in Seshengo, Limpopo on Wednesday, May 8, and was accompanied by his wife, Mantwa Matlala, when the dramatic incident ensued.
” I found it bizarre and I asked her where was it written that women with long nails cannot be allowed to vote. We can’t have such a patriarchal arrangements in a polling station,” he said.
The radical politician argued the process of election should be not be discriminative and and should not violate the rights of electorates. He accused the official of being insensitive and ignoring the cost his wife had incurred in beatifying her nails.
“It must not be costly to vote, to put nails is money and for somebody to give you scissors to cut them out, are they going to pay for it? He posed.
According to Malema, allowing such small incidents of discrimination could result to bigger and worse situations in future and as a revolutionary he could not stand it.
“Such nonsensical things start in small ways and before you notice, they will be already institutionalised, they must be challenged now” said the EFF leader.