Jacinta votes: 'A day for patriotic South Africans'

March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has cast her vote, and used the moment to take another swipe at foreign nationals.

Ngobese-Zuma posted a picture of her inked thumbnail on Facebook on Wednesday morning, shortly after voting.

"The one thing our government can never choose foreigners over us for… A Day for PATRIOTIC South Africans has come," she wrote.

In the picture, she rests her marked thumb on her lap. She is wearing denim covered in South African flag patches.

The post drew quick reactions from her followers.

South Africans are voting in the local government elections today.

The day has been declared a public holiday, and voting stations are open from 7am to 9pm.

Voters are choosing who will run their municipalities for the next five years.

Ngobese-Zuma has pushed her supporters to turn out.

At a gathering in Durban on 21 October, she warned that voter apathy would hand power back to people she described as "the thieves", and urged supporters to back aligned candidates.

She has also publicly backed ActionSA's eThekwini mayoral candidate, Zwakele Mncwango.

She said ActionSA had stood alongside March and March from its early days. Some of her supporters warned online that the endorsement could cost her followers.

In July, she accused ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula of trying to discredit the movement by linking it to the MK Party.

She said his criticism was driven by "the fear of Jacob Zuma".

Her vote comes days after a court fight with government.

Last Friday, she and other March and March leaders were due in the Durban High Court to respond to an interim interdict restricting the group's weekly protests in parts of the Durban CBD.

The interdict bars threats, assaults, intimidation, looting, arson and forced business closures, and covers the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre on Moore Road.

Ngobese-Zuma denied the group was involved in any violence. She said it was scary that "silencing people has become the first step instead of engaging them".