The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) appears to be facing an increasingly difficult challenge in drawing the youth to the voting polls.
This is the generation shaped by amapiano, YouTube and digital immediacy – a generation that questions authority.
They are not bound by the political loyalties of previous generations, nor do they feel indebted to liberation movements simply because history demands it.
Instead, they ask a far more direct question: on what basis should they hand over their vote?
To many young people, political promises feel recycled, disconnected and unable to translate into meaningful change in their daily lives. Statistics show their absence at the polls, reflecting disengagement rather than apathy alone.
And perhaps the more uncomfortable question is whether they can truly be blamed for their reluctance to participate in a system they feel has not meaningfully delivered for them.
The youth are unemployed, and many come from households that slipped from middle-class stability into working-class survival.
Many are undereducated, not by lack of ambition, but by circumstances that denied them opportunities equal to their potential.
They do not qualify for RDP housing, while women like Mam’ Mahlangu have waited since the early 2000s for homes of their own.
In essence, the IEC is calling upon the landless, the undersupported and the economically exhausted to place faith in the ballot box once more. For a generation shaped by disappointment and uncertainty, perhaps that is not a simple request, but a difficult one.
“Get up, show up and vote.” This is the IEC’s call to action to a generation marked by disillusionment and political fatigue.
Yet there appears to be far less emphasis on reminding leaders that they, too, carry an obligation to the very voters being encouraged to participate.
Democracy cannot function as a one-sided arrangement where citizens are repeatedly called to the polls with promises of change, only to return home to the same realities of unemployment, inequality and uncertainty.
Participation requires more than slogans and campaigns; it requires visible accountability and meaningful delivery. We cannot continue sending people to the ballot box with dreams, only for them to return to a reality of nothingness.
Perhaps the IEC’s responsibility should extend beyond educating citizens on how to vote, to also reminding political parties of their obligations to the voter once elected.
