Low voter turnout should worry all

The cynics may well be correct when they point out that South Africans – many of them, at least – take full advantage of public holidays on election days to indulge their passion for partying… or just lying around, doing nothing.

That was certainly one factor in the disappointingly low turnout in Monday’s local government polls, where an estimated 48% of registered voters turned up to put their crosses on the ballot papers.

In the same polls in 2016, more than 57% did their civic duty.

ALSO READ: Disturbingly low voter turnout recorded across all nine provinces thus far

Some may have been deterred from voting because of the weather and others may have been put off by reports of glitches in the IEC’s processes.

Yet, one cannot escape the conclusion that many South Africans either don’t care enough to vote, or they stayed away in protest at the parlous state of our country.

Either possibility should worry the politicians of our country.

If people don’t care, then they feel their vote will make little difference. And a stay-away protest makes the same point.

Something is rotten in the state of politics in this country.

ALSO READ: IEC says they’re not to blame for low voter turnout

And while the obvious culprit is the ANC – which has mismanaged the country down the toilet over the past 27 years, through corruption and incompetence – the fact remains that there is no alternative to unseat the organisation.

That should give all the ANC’s political opponents pause for serious reflection.

If the ANC – possibly at the weakest it has been since 1994 – cannot be defeated, then nobody has come up
with an programme appealing enough to the majority of South Africans for whom the ANC is a way of life.

Also worrying for all concerned – parties and the IEC – is the apparently minuscule turnout among young people.

Their cynicism and irritation at our politics doesn’t bode well for the future of our democracy