To all the Youth of South Africa,

The Ballot is the Born-free's Bullet: A Call to all the Youth of South Africa to Register To Vote

I am a 22 year old who has never cast a vote in any local or national election in my life. I had turned 18 in 2009 but I could not register to vote because I had lost my I.D. I didn't think it was a big deal because I didn't believe that my vote would make a difference. I also believed that my vote wouldn't change anything so I just shrugged it off and slept in that weekend even though a voting station was a stone's throw away from my campus residence.

I just didn't bother because I thought I didn't matter. Then I grew up and realized that I do matter and so do you my fellow young people. According to StatsSA, there are approximately 1,9 million South Africans who are 18 and 19 years old. 1.9 million South Africans will be eligible to vote for the first time next year. There are 9 million young South Africans aged between 20-29 years old. If all eleven million of us voted we would make up the largest bloc of voters in our country and most definitely change our government indefinitely. How can we NOT matter?

But unfortunately only 185 025 18-19 year olds have registered, a measly 12% of the country's population total and only 4,9 million out of eleven million of us aged 20-29 have registered to vote. These stats are shameful. We can change the entire government just by the fact that there are eleven million of us. We can do this if we become more engaged and more politically mature. The power is in our hands. Let's use it. 

The old folk tell us we're an apathetic lost generation with no interest in our country. They say this in places of media and communication where they conveniently make no space for us. Is it no wonder then that we show no interest? How can the older generation hear our views when they talk about us, at us, but not to us? But I know that we are not only interested but we are passionate about our country and the issues it faces. I know this because we talk about them every day on Facebook, Twitter and with each other on campuses and schools.

From the street corners of Soweto to the office parks in Sandton we engage, we argue and we come up with solutions to the problems our country faces. Yet they don't listen to us, so let's force them to hear us by voting. They say we won't make it out to register this weekend. They say we will be too busy nursing hangovers or we will purposefully stay away because we actually don't give a damn about this country. Let's prove them wrong and honour the memory of the youth that sacrificed their lives so we could be born free.

Let us never ever forget the school children of 1976 who as young as ten years old, had to take bullets when they spoke out against an oppressive system. Take yourself back to when you were ten years old. Imagine having bullets and bombs rained on you instead of playing skiprope with your friends or watching cartoons on TV? This youth threw mere stones at gigantic army tanks so that we could have the freedom and peace to have our voices heard through the ballot and not through the violence and carnage of AK-47 bullets.

Let us not spit on their courage and sacrifice with our apathy. Let them not have been mutilated, electrocuted and slaughtered for nothing just because we are too busy not caring to go stand in a queue for ten minutes to register to exercise a right, thousands of people our age, gave up their very lives for. Let their deaths not have been in vain. They took bullets so that the ballot could be the bullet we can fire to change our country. We cannot do anything sitting at home complaining. If we want change we have to go out and register. Your vote will make a difference.

The rot of political stagnancy has turned what is meant to be the liveliness of our country's democracy into a one-party carcass. But the winds of change are sweeping through, shifting the political landscape. New parties have emerged and are strong contenders at that. Politics has become exciting again. It is our time now, our hour. It is time for us as the youth to exercise our power and step up like how the youth of 76' stepped up 37 years ago. They sacrificed their lives so that we didn't have to pick up a gun or throw stones, but instead we could pick up the pen and do something as simple as mark an X. No bloodshed. No loss of life. Just an ink dot on your thumb to highlight the rights and freedoms they died fighting for.

We the youth are the ones that face the brunt of every cent stolen and every bad decision made by leaders that no longer serve their people. They no longer serve us because we have stopped making the noise that would make them accountable. Our apathy has made us silent so they no longer hear us. Because what need is there to listen to a people that no longer speaks out?

The old folk may be resigned in defeat but we must not give up. The new parties and the old opposition parties are fighting so hard for our vote because they know how powerful we are. If you are disenchanted, disillusioned and dissatisfied with the state that our country is in right now then register to vote so that you can use that power. Imagine the change we can make if we all voted?

I am going to go to my nearest voting station and register this weekend. And I know that you care enough about our country to join me.

Kind Regards

Nomusa Mthethwa

Nomusa Mthethwa is a freelance writer and columnist for CHEKA Digital, an online street culture magazine.

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