Not voting means you leave power in the same incapable hands

Come late 2026, I will have a household of eligible voters — from the old-hand octogenarian to the newly minted 18-year-old.

- Jillian Green

The election date is yet to be announced, but we have already started to have some lively conversations about voting, and why it's important to be an active citizen in this space. The apathy towards taking part in the polls is pretty real across the age range. Poor service delivery coupled with corruption creates fertile ground for a disaffected electorate.

But if there is one lesson to take from the political shifts of 2025, it is that the ballot box remains the most potent weapon in a citizen’s arsenal.

Look no further than New York City. In November, Zohran Mamdani (43), a democratic socialist and former housing counselor, stunned the establishment by winning the mayoral race. He didn’t just beat a Republican, he toppled a political dynasty in defeating former governor Andrew Cuomo.

And he did it not by appealing to the status quo, and certainly not by banking on voter apathy. Mamdani won because he mobilised a coalition of the unheard — taxi drivers, young renters and working-class families — who realised that not voting was simply not an option. He turned a legislative track record of fighting for taxi medallion debt relief and free buses into a mandate for running the biggest city in America.

This is a striking counter-narrative to the mood hanging over South Africa as we stare down the barrel of the 2026 local government elections.