In South Africa, first-time voters want their choice to count and keep their dreams alive

BY FARAI MUTSAKA
Associated Press

NKANDLA, South Africa (AP) — Some young South Africans in a poor, rural area of rolling hills were determined to vote in Wednesday’s national election. Turning peer pressure on its head, they encouraged each other to register as voters, before flocking to polling stations on election day. They say they desperately hope their votes count and their dreams are not deferred in what they saw happen to their parents and other older relatives after South Africa’s defining 1994 election brought down apartheid but didn’t solve the poverty for so many. Many youths have seen this election as the most important since that historic moment three decades ago.