Devi Sankaree Govender

I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but a week before the country’s first democratic elections I was recruited by the IEC and given the rather lofty title of Deputy Presiding Officer for my rural hometown voting station in KZN. My parents were filled with pride. However, the grand position was totally lost on me. I had both eyeballs trained on the unexpected cash injection into my gloomy financial state of affairs. It was hardly a windfall but I was 21 and a fourth year university student ….

You’re either an animal person or you are not. Now, for the big money question … Are you an exotic pet person? Exotic pet, like a tiger? I’m not off my head. What if the tiger wakes up one day and completely forgets how I lovingly hand-fed it as a cub? And then decides, on the spur of the moment, to chomp me? Then, how would I take my tiger for walks? She would need lots of walks – my garden isn’t big enough for a tiger.

It’s dry in the Free State. Dry and hot. You can feel the dust in your throat. Matted into your hair. Pushed deep under your fingernails. Printed into your eyeballs. Five minutes in the sun is long enough to cause a heat rash. Livestock stand lifeless in the ruthless heat and along the N6 we drive through kilometres of dead earth, brown with withered crops. It feels like we are on the set of a Mad Max movie. Dust devils complete the surreal picture. If only this was a Hollywood blockbuster.