WHERE IS Vote YOUR

Elections take place next month on 29 May and South Africans keep calling for change. But young people are seemingly not interested in voting. What's stopping Gen Z from making that X?

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South Africa's seventh democratic General Elections are almost here and it's time for us to make like a river and flow to those voting stations. Except, not all of us are making the effort. An estimated 14 million people between the ages of 18 and 30, which is about 35% of the country's population, have the most influence and power to elect our nation's leaders and enable the changes our country needs. However, this demographic has also had the lowest voter turnout since 1994.

According to a study (an analysis of non-voters) done in 2020 by Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, a senior lecturer in political science at Stellenbosch University, less than half of all eligible South Africans cast their vote in the 2019 elections, and voter turnout has dropped by 37% overall (from 1994 to 2019). Startling statistics from this report, such as that 19% of eligible 18-19 year olds registered but only 15% of them actually cast a vote, or that only 30% of eligible 20-29 year olds voted, prompted a flurry of discussion and debate on the topic of youth apathy towards voting.

Why the disinterest?

'Apathy' in this context is defined as an unmotivated lack of engagement in anything political or not of self-interest. In this case, the younger generation, not just in South Africa but internationally, are apathetic towards voting.