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The largest, and most influential voting cohort in South Africa are the youth, yet many are not willing to vote as they feel unrepresented. Muhammad Hussain reflects on available research on the youth vote and speaks to expert Tessa Dooms about why young people need to be encouraged to vote en masse.
"The easiest way to change the democratic system is to win an election. Everything else means we will have to lose more than we gain in a fight outside of a democratic process," says political analyst Tessa Dooms.
Out of the 25 944 016 registered voters as at 14 June, 213 635 fall in the 18-19 age category; 3 749 735 fall in the 20-29 age category; and 6 612 186 fall in the 30-39 age category. All three categories make up 10 575 556 or 40.76% of registered voters.
Stats SA estimates that there were 20 608 891 people between the ages of 20-39 in 2022. Youth between the ages of 15-19 number 5 101 675.
A study in 2020 by Collette Schulz-Herzenberg titled "The South African non-voter: An analysis", found that 49% of all eligible South Africans cast a vote in 2019 – the first time this dropped below 50% since 1994. In 2019, of those between the ages of 18 and 39, 12 325 769 registered to vote.
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What’s even more startling according to the report is that in 2019 "only 19% of all eligible 18-19-year-olds actually registered and only 15% of all eligible 18-19-year-olds cast a vote. Only 30% of all eligible 20-29-year-olds voted". In the age category between 30-39, only 43% of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Dooms says that young people have the numbers to win an election:
Stats SA estimate that those aged 40 and above number about 17.5 million.
Definitions of youth
Youth and young people are usually considered between the ages of 18-35, Dooms says. "But the biggest cohort of young voters is actually the cohort 15-24. That’s where the bulk of young voters sit. It is energising that group of people that is the most crucial."
The IEC notes that one can register to vote from the age of 16, but can only legally vote at 18.
Dooms adds that politicians and political parties extend the youth age to 40 for their convenience, adding that this is lazy politicking "because the numbers show that these younger voters have the biggest sway in terms of being a voting bloc that will change things".
READ | Three-quarters of young voters ‘disappear’
In 2016, a report by the Institute of Security Studies authored by Lauren Tracey-Temba looked at the voting behavior of young people between the ages of 18 and 24. It found that:
The study found that young people acknowledged the importance of voting to bring about change, but "do not identify voting as the best way to achieve this change".
Tracey-Themba says that in 2023 little has changed in voting patterns because little has changed in relation to the socioeconomic challenges they continue to face.
The youth are not apathetic
The IEC’s 2021 local government voter participation survey found that "less than half (45%) of the adult citizenary believe that the youth is interested in elections". The same survey noted that, in 2019, the youth (aged 18-34) accounted for a third of the population (17.84 million).
It also reported that "amongst the 18-34 age cohort, self-reported registration rates are down from 69% in 2005 to 57% in 2021. This outcome seems to point to an escalating disenchantment with the electoral system amongst the youth".
READ | ‘Voting means nothing’: What’s fuelling youth voter apathy?
Dooms says that it's not that the youth don't care about the country, democracy, or that they're apathetic. It's that voting has not produced the results they'd hoped for.
"There's no sense that the voting options that they have at the moment and the people who are voting options at the moment, are willing to exchange that people's vote for anything of value for them."
She added:
In a 2018 report on how young people feel absent and silenced in the electoral process, Tracey-Temba writes that: "Young people are a powerful resource and political leaders need to acknowledge the role they can play in decision-making processes at especially national and local levels. Effectively engaging young people on platforms that they use and identify with could go a long way to changing their perceptions about politics, politicians and social transformation."
Some commentators have warned of an "Arab Spring" moment in South Africa due to the "vast, restless sea of young people with unmet dreams and aspirations" who wake up to lives of poverty, joblessness and boredom.
READ | The youth could have controlled the 2019 poll
Dooms believes that it must not be left up to politicians and political parties to energise voters, but rather an all-society approach is needed.
"Young people are going to be encouraged to vote by other young people and their communities. You need civic engagement, social movements and concerted efforts from business, non-government and non-political spaces that encourage young people to vote and to vote purposefully."
Dooms adds that young people must put forward the issues they care about to political parties and "raise their hands as young people to vote and be voted for".
