‘Please don’t vote for failure’: Generational divide on voting in SA

In the words of the great Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Angelou was talking about first impressions in your interactions with people; how they felt. Were they ignored, accommodated and cared for?

Because “first impressions last long”. Although she was talking about this from a one-on-one conversational point of view, it is easy to apply it in different situations.

Last Saturday, I took a taxi to Pretoria, Soshanguve, from MTN Taxi rank and in the taxi a conversation began about South African politics.

We had a bit of a discussion about who young people were leaning towards, compared to the older generation, and with the elections drawing closer the conversation swayed in that direction and we engaged on the basics: who is better, who will bring change and who is wasting the country’s time.

Lo and behold, the most anticipated moment we had all been waiting for, was an elderly man sitting on the last row of seats in the taxi: “I still maintain, better the devil I know than the devil I don’t” – and although we were all speaking over each other and expressing disapproval of each other’s suggestions, his statement was worse, we all agreed.

Whether intentional or not, this definitely commanded attention.

We all kept quiet and turned to look at him, the second male sitting next to him (who probably failed to read the room) said: “No, I still think apartheid was better, people were working and people didn’t just drop dead like flies, the same way they do now”, with another bombastic side-eye.

None of us were expecting the second statement. The first comment didn’t really shock us, but the second one?

It was shocking to all of us and it even turned the whole mood in the taxi sombre.

As if that was not enough the driver added: “Yeah, you’re right. What exactly is freedom? Is it sitting at a park and drinking? Because that’s what people are doing now.”

All I could think in that moment was how disappointed people were and how much they felt let down by the ruling party.

It’s sad to see that black people would rather opt for an oppressive system because democracy (read ANC) has let them down so much.

READ: IEC worried over declining voter turnout ahead of 2024 elections

But going back to Angelou: it’s clear that the older generation is not ready to let go, because the justification is crazy.

When do we get to a point where we don’t choose a devil – whether we know him or not? Looking at it from Angelou’s point of view though.

I totally understand that they only remember the ANC by how it made them feel in regard to democracy and freedom.

They can’t recall all the things the organisation did to them with regards to the heightened poverty, lack of services and all the other little failures.

As young people (millennials and Gen Z), we cannot see past the point of failure by a government who doesn’t have their citizens’ best interests at heart.

And that is why age also remained a consistent predictor of voter choice: younger people are less likely to support the ANC.

Don’t get me wrong … it is evident that party loyalty is not fixed. A number of political experts have noted that it can rise and wane as voters have become disillusioned with the governing party.

However, voter preferences won’t always be driven by rational considerations.

Needless to say, I’m here with a friendly reminder: come election time, anyone who has a grandmother or grandfather, don’t forget to hide their identification documents until after the elections, especially if you believe we need free and fair elections.

Wink, wink …