In the wake of the news by the EIC confirming the ANC’s victory of 57.5 per cent, the news brought about mixed emotions in our country and communities especially among the people.
Therefore it begs the question whether the youth of South Africa shares the same sentiment as the rest of the country’s decision in entrusting the ANC with our country.
According to the national voter’s roll statistics, 2019 has been noted to have seen the lowest count of youth voters for over 25 years.
In an attempt to find the underlying source behind the non-voting youth in our communities, the presiding officer at Laerskool Goudrand voting station said the following: “I have been here since 7am and it is a shame, but we have seen more voters over 60 than the youth voters. Young adults do not seem to take anything serious.”
Is this disintegration of the South African youth refusal to vote a deliberate act?
The South African youth is confident they know the path they want to follow and judging by their abstinence from the voting polls, none of the 48 registered political parties is worth of their vote.
Buhle Mnomiya, a 19-year-old student from Boksburg said he did not register to vote, but even if he had registered he would not know who to vote for. “There is a lot of political parties and since I am not really into politics I just did not bother.”
Mnomiya is one among a string of young adults not really bothered by staying away from the ballot.
Chene Els (23) from Boksburg also did not cast her vote. She said: “I could not vote because I was registered in North West, but hey there will be a next time right.”
The country simply cannot ignore or refuse to recognise the frustration of the South African youth. The 30-year-old security guard from Vosloorus, Michael Mgidi, pointed out his reasons for not voting.
“I find myself questioning everything and mainly the decisions I have made in the past including voting for the ruling government.”
He added saying he questions whether it was the right decision. He says, “Not voting is my way of trying to make sense of things.”
If the claims to provide the ideal platform for all is true, why has the South African youth lost faith in the system and the government which govern us today? The pattern of resolving issues with false promises is one of the biggest culprits.
The youth feels they have been left destitute and rightfully so. Judging by the increasing unemployment rate among the youth which remains alarming high with an increase from 52.8 per cent in 2018 to 57.70 in 2019.
The whole dynamic needs to change. The country must come up with a new paradigm of reaching out to our youth and use all our might to gain back their trust. These are after all South African leaders in the making.
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