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VOTING in the Cape Winelands is about land and farmers should get ready for radical land reform after the elections, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the Western Cape said on Wednesday.

Thousands of voters turned up at various polling stations in the Cape Winelands on Wednesday. The Cape Winelands, in particular De Doorns, was the centre of violent farm worker strikes in 2012 as workers demanded better wages and working conditions.

The issue was inevitably politicised, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC) in the province trading accusations. Last year, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant announced a new minimum wage for farm workers of R105 a day.

In an interview outside a polling station in De Doorns on Wednesday, Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich, who is also the leader of the ANC in the Cape Town council, said that voters had turned up in large numbers because they wanted to see change on the farms.

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Mr Ehrenreich also walked around in the area observing the polling stations. Most of the voters queuing at one of the main polling station, which was ironically near a big football field where protesting farm workers used to gather during the strike in 2012, were clad in ANC T-shirts.

"This election in this area is about the land. That is why people are coming out in large numbers. The land reform proposals announced by the minister (Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti) will lead to the empowerment of people," Mr Ehrenreich said.

Mr Nkwinti in March released a proposal that farm workers be given a 50% equity share of the farms on which they worked as a way to speed up land reform.

"Farmers must be nervous in this area … government will force them (to do more for farm workers) … in the past government has not had two-thirds majority and has not be able to enforce these things," Mr Ehrenreich said.

"But if things go as predicated, the ANC nationally will get 63% and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at least 4% and that’s 67% of the vote and they will stand together on issues like radical land reform … so they will be a clear two-thirds support in Parliament for radical land reform," Mr Ehrenreich said.

The EFF has been vocal about land reform in South Africa in the lead up to the polls, mainly criticising its tardiness.

Land reform in South Africa has been slow. Last year it was announced that only 8% of claimed land had been handed back, although settlements over a far larger portion of South Africa’s land space have been finalised.

The DA, the ANC and the EFF have campaigned intensely in the Winelands in recent weeks.

Addressing farming communities at a rally near De Doorns last month, ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman said: "Twenty years into democracy, land still belongs to those who oppressed us."

He said that too many farmers in the Western Cape were not paying the minimum wage and if the ANC comes into power, "guilty farmers will pay".

DA member, Charlton Boer, who is also a farm worker in De Doorns, said that the DA was doing a lot for workers on farms around the Winelands.

"We have been pushing the farm equity share scheme and as a farm worker, I believe that it is the best way to go as is will also help us prepare to be able to run farms … we do not want to end up like Zimbabwe," Mr Boer said.

He said he was confident that the DA would do well in the area. The farm equity share initiative allows farmers the option of selling their land through a share-ownership scheme.

Some of the voters who spoke to BDlive outside polling stations in De Doorns, said they were voting "for someone that can care for us".

"We cannot continue to live like this (in poverty). We hope this election brings about real change to our lives," said Candice Grobler.

While the DA has strong support in the Winelands, the ANC has also in previous elections put up a good showing. Following the 2011 municipal elections, the DA had 22 seats in the Cape Winelands district municipality compared to the ANC’s 14.