Apathy in youth: Not voting will be a missed opportunity to remove old guard

A leading political analyst yesterday said apathy from voters in next year’s polls would be a missed opportunity to jettison the old generation of politicians, who should be replaced by an inspiring young leadership with fresh ideas.

With the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) pulling out all the stops in marketing the voter registration weekend on media platforms, independent political analyst Sandile Swana called on young voters to register to vote in their numbers to inspire the emergence of a new political direction.

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“All peaceful change in a constitutional democracy, such as in South Africa, comes through the ballot. “Voters below the age of 40 need to register and vote for new leaders, new ideas and new practices – taking the future of the country into their own hands.

“Apathy and nonvoting will precipitate an unled revolution in South Africa caused by the longterm decline of the standard of living of the black majority and the gaping inequality, driven by rapacious greed and exhibitionist consumerism of the ruling class.

ANC in decline

“Since 2009, voters have clearly shown disapproval of the ruling ANC,” he said. “In the last local government election, the DA (Democratic Alliance) and ANC voter support showed a decline amid a growing unemployment rate, which has remained above 20%.

This has been accompanied by an economic growth rate of below 2% and generally below 1%, as well as being far below the 5.4% stipulated in the National Development Plan. “It becomes clear that the older generation of politicians are holding back South Africa in terms of fundamental economic changes.”

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He said young voters were becoming “the nonvoting majority adding to general voter apathy caused by long-term nonperformance by the old generation of politicians leaders across the board”.

Tessa Dooms, director of programmes at Rivonia Circle, which champions political participation at community level and across sectors, said 40 million people were still unregistered to vote in South Africa.

The greatest population group

“Young people are the most voters in this country and if they come in their droves to the polls to vote for leaders and parties of their choice, politicians will feel the brunt of the youth.

“There are much fewer people in SA who are political party members, people who are politically aligned,” she said. “With one million members, the ANC got 10 million votes in the last election meaning the nine million people who voted for the party were not members.

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“And there are 40 million people who are unregistered to vote, who – if they vote as a block – can unseat any party in this country.

“Those who are unregistered must know they are not part of the biggest voting group.” She said voter apathy has been high with people “not registering or showing up to vote”.

“Voter apathy is a statement people are making that they are not only unhappy with a particular political party but showing distrust of the power of the vote to change anything in society,” said Dooms.