SA’s youth not interested in voting for untrustworthy dinosaurs, self-serving militants

We’re trapped in a system filled with cadre deployment, a bloated Cabinet and old ministers glued to their seats – so a lot is expected in the 2024 general election.

The ANC will be hoping for victory and other parties will want to unseat them, but there seems to be no attention paid to the worst-case scenario: that the youth won’t bother going to the polls.

There will be a lot of campaigning in the next year from various political parties making promises of hope and change for the near future. However, while it is important to immerse ourselves in something deemed as a constitutional right, I honestly, do not see the youth taking part in the 2024 polls.

Do I blame them? No, not really. Although young people do vote, the problem is they do so at a very low rate. Why? It’s a mixture of youth mistrust of the government and unrelenting economic times … yet political leaders simply do not seem to care.

On the other hand, I do not think the youth do not care about any of these hardened socioeconomic issues. We are, after all, regarded as the future of this country and our actions and decisions have a major impact – but the trust deficit has become a vehicle for youth voter apathy.

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It is not that we are uninterested in voting but today’s politics seems to be catering for a much older generation. They all seem like one party dressed in different names. I, for one, do not even know who to trust or believe in at this point. Perhaps I am just defeated but there is simply no political party that has youth representation.

The one which we thought might have had, lost its way. Its overbearing, destructive and militant leader is simply using the party to fulfil his own vengeance.

I also do not think it makes sense that lack of interest in elections by youth is because of the lack of voter education. Every young person out there knows the importance of having to vote, they just do not see the need to do so and others have said they’ll do it for the sake of getting it done.

The state of politics in SA seems like a gamble of voting for the “better of two evils” situation. I have had several conversations with peers and other young people and have witnessed their hope in the prospect of things ever changing or getting better has slowly depreciated by the minute.

Coming in as a really liberated generation, political parties are a very restricting concept because while one might agree with some party policies, they may not agree with all of them and the restriction of having to put one political party in power is rather daunting.

Although we understand that politics impacts a lot, including the economy, globalisation and social media has given us access to knowledge that allows us to operate – or at least believe we are operating – independently.

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The new generation of people, Gen Z, operate from a very independent and isolated place. It is a generation which believes that their livelihoods are not completely dependent on the political climate of their country. The youth has found a way to invest themselves in multiple platforms in order to thrive, despite a crumbling government.

Yet the government should not forget that the youth are the votes of today and more of tomorrow. The youth will continue to bear the brunt of decisions taken today.