THE Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has embarked on a drive to lure more people to vote in the forthcoming Local Government Elections, saying voter apathy was the biggest challenge facing this country.
Speaking at eSikhaleni Mall while interacting with local residents, IFP’s Provincial Secretary for Women’s Brigade Hlengiwe Nkosi said her party was concerned about the low number of people who show up on election days to cast their votes.
She said most people who were reluctant to participate in elections and who were not voting at all were the youth.
‘We are here to create public awareness to all residents of eSikhaleni to make use of the voter registration window period for March 5 and 6 2016.
‘It is no use for people to moan that South Africa has a leadership crisis, yet they do nothing about it. The only way for ordinary people to communicate a message with those in power is through exercising their franchise on election day.
Nkosi said her past experience has shown that people have a tendency of registering to vote, but on election day they don’t come out in their large numbers, opting to stay at home for reasons known to them.
‘This has been a worrying trend, and we hope it does not happen again this time. We are here to encourage people to go and register so as to vote once the election day has been announced by the state President.
‘We chose to come here to dispel any speculation that eSikhaleni was an ANC territory, but we are not here to tell people to vote for us.
‘We will come back again for that, once they have registered,’ added Nkosi as they were doing the walkabout handing out pamphlets on voter registration.
