It’s time for leaders to listen to the youth

There is a new wind of change blowing across Africa, almost 65 years after British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan warned white colonialists that national consciousness would grow, “whether we like it or not.”

Those changes would usher in a gradual end to the empire, the end of white minority rule and, finally, a new era of democracy across the continent.

Now, though, after repeated looting and bloodletting has hobbled Africa’s march to prosperity, there is an angry young tune billowing up among the moribund governments of old men.

The results of the Mozambican and Senegalese elections have seen youth movements pushing for change, while a cohort of people made it plain it wanted a new Botswana.

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Worryingly, only 16% of South African youth are optimistic about the future, the lowest number in 16 countries in Africa, according to a survey.

The Ichikowitz Family Foundation’s 2024 African Youth Survey has also revealed 74% of SA youth believe the country is going in the wrong direction.

A year ago, the foundation indicated that the majority of youngsters wanted to quit the continent entirely. Interesting, the survey showed that 91% of Rwanda’s youth were optimistic… so why are young South African so dispirited?

And why do they have no respect for, or believe in, the ANC of today? The youth are threatening to punish the ANC by sending the message that the old, “big men” of the past need to step aside and provide a true democracy.

Surveys like the one carried out by the foundation are vital warnings about the health of countries – the proverbial “canaries in the coal mine” which cannot be ignored if the continent is not to be plunged into chaos. It is time our old leaders started listening – and prepare to make way for the new hurricane of change.

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