This weekend's voter registration has been an eye-opener for the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Johannesburg mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba, who believes this local government election is going to be a game changer.

"Honestly, people of this country are ready to make a change," he told News24 at the Sandton Fire Station, where he was checking his voter registration details on Sunday morning.

"This is going to be another game changer and I think we as the DA are ready for the challenge."

Mashaba said he had spent Saturday visiting seven or eight voter stations and he was pleased to see that many people were going out to register or check their details.

The mayoral candidate said he had finished up on Saturday in the township of Alexandra, which has been a long-standing ANC stronghold.

"The people of Alexandra are angry, it's actually quite sad.

"It saddens me every time when I engage with them, because you can really see their living conditions [are bad], 20 years into our new democracy.

"In fact it... worries me when some of them feel what's the point of voting. But then it's up to us as the DA to actually go out there and engage with them so that they understand the importance," he said.

Mashaba said people in Alexandra were waking up to the fact that they needed to vote for change if they wanted to improve their living conditions.

Citizens needed to understand that the Constitution allowed them to effect change through the ballot box.

"We need to find ways to go and really engage them to understand that they must go out and vote and bring change to their lives."

After checking his voter registration details, Mashaba said he would visit another seven or eight voting stations. He was heading to Roodepoort, Soweto and the Johannesburg CBD.

Mashaba said he was excited for this year's elections.

"I'm here, I saw my wife is also there [on the voters roll] so we are now ready to come and vote.

"We are waiting for the president to announce the date so that we can actually change the direction this country has been taking the last few years."

News24.com