JOHANNESBURG - There’s a growing disconnect between South Africa’s youth and political parties.
That’s according to Rivonia Circle, a non-profit think tank focused on democratic reform, policy development and leadership.
With the 4 November municipal elections just days away, the concern is whether young people are losing faith in the ballot box or simply disengaging from the political process.
Rivonia Circle's Naledi Ngqambela said young people are disengaged.
"I think young people are aware of what’s happening in the country. I just think that they’re so disengaged because political leaders are not doing what they said they will do. So, that’s why young people are sort of seemingly looking like they’re not engaged on what’s going on around the country. But also, political parties or political leaders are not engaging young people the way that they want to be engaged.
"So, as you mentioned that young people are always online and I think that’s where also political leaders need to be. Be online. Go to schools and engage in the way they want to be engaged. So that it’s fun and it’s also fulfilling for them to be part of the electoral system. I’ve seen an advert by the IEC actually, where they’re working with one of social media influencers, Alfie, and I think that was such a great initiative to work with social media influencers so that young people are always engaged and that young people know what is happening in the country.
"Because it’s much easier as people they gravitate towards. So they always need to be online, need to do fun things. If young people are out at a party place, politicians have to be there and they need to engage and they should say ‘clock it’ they should, you know, engage them at a level that they want to be engaged. So, I like that initiative by the IEC and I think we need more of that.”