South Africa’s May 2024 general elections were not only significant for not producing an outright winner; they also saw a serious decline in young people pitching up to vote.
This is despite the fact that it was reported that voter registrations of young people increased from 18.5% in 2019 to 27.1% in 2024.
Why do young people stay away from the polls? Why do they not feel the need to participate in a democratic process denied to most of their ancestors for decades?
Maybe they have decided to stay away because some continue to believe that their votes do not make any significant impact because of how the current electoral system makes it difficult for them to directly hold their public representatives accountable.
Previous research has found that the youth fail to vote because some believe politics is full of corruption and self-enrichment.
In the lead-up to the past general elections, The Ethics Institute found several other factors - including poor service delivery, the unemployment rate and government detachment from reality on the ground - as among the reasons for youth voter apathy.
Dr Sithembile Mbete, in her paper Making Sense of the 2024 Elections, found that only about half of the registered 18- to 19-year-old young people turned up to vote. At the last public consultation of the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel, Dr Mbete raised her concerns about the need to reflect on this group of voters’ failure to vote.
With the Minister of Home Affairs having tabled two reports on electoral reforms prepared by the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel to Parliament at the end of August, one just hopes whichever report Parliament decides to adopt will have some practical and tested suggestions on how to engage the youth, and address the issue of youth voter apathy.
While voter apathy is a worldwide phenomenon, several countries have recently taken initiatives to increase youth voter turnout at the polls. For example, countries such as Sweden, Australia, Argentina, Belgium and Peru have adopted a compulsory voting system to improve voter turnout.
Read more: SA youth not apathetic but no longer believe elections are best path to change
While compulsory voting might not meet the constitutional test in South Africa, it has seen countries like Sweden registering an 80.3% voter turnout in the 2022 elections. Other measures, such as having concurrent elections and professionalisation of election administration, were identified as ways to increase youth voter turnout.
While it seems that we all have moved on from the fact that half of young South Africans decided against voting in the 2024 general elections, I strongly believe this is something that should concern all of us as we head into the 2026 local government and the 2029 general elections.
It would be wrong of us to simply ignore this group of voters, because their failure to participate in the democratic process presents a danger to our electoral democracy. This situation compels all different stakeholders to engage them ahead of next year’s crucial local government elections.
With those local government elections expected to be either late 2026 or early 2027, it is now an ideal time to engage 18- to 19-year-old eligible voters about not only the importance of participating in elections, but also to turn up on voting day.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) - together with political parties, youth-oriented government entities, civil society formations and community groups - needs to roll out a massive civic education programme that is not only aimed at encouraging young persons to vote, but also trying to fully understand their reasons for failing to participate in the democratic electoral process.
At a recent press briefing, the IEC stated that through its civic and democracy education programme between April and August this year, it managed to host “24,388 face-to-face civic and voter education events to foster a culture of civic responsibility”.
But the IEC can no longer be the only institution that is tasked with educating and encouraging eligible voters to participate in electoral democracy when the future of our electoral democracy is at stake. The situation requires a whole-of-society approach to ensure that eligible voters take their civic duty seriously because they represent the future of our electoral democracy.
The good thing about young voters is that they are not hard to find; they are digital beings.
Read more: ‘We want to make politics cool again’ — Ground Work targets young people in voter registration drive
The IEC needs to use social media platforms like TikTok - which is becoming the most used social media platform by 18- to 24-years-olds in South Africa - to massively curate civic education on electoral democracy. Along with the IEC’s workshops, IEC officials need to also use popular culture and political podcasts to further drive civic education.
Youth-oriented civic and democracy television programmes such as Khululeka, which aired on the public broadcaster in the lead-up to the 2009 general elections, need to be revived across all different broadcast platforms to further educate and encourage young voters to vote. I was personally encouraged to vote in the 2009 elections by such television programmes and I know how that could encourage young people, who are major consumers of television.
Additionally, the IEC, working with the Department of Basic and Higher Education, needs to conduct more democracy education workshops in schools and universities - the next new voters for the 2029 elections are currently at school. Engaging young people while they are still in school would not only help in making them understand their civic duty, but could see the country having more active citizenry. DM