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.