‘Young people in this country don’t feel that they are heard’
Bongani Bingwa of 702 speaks to DA Federal Youth Leader Luyolo Mphithi and EFF Student Command President Peter Keetse.
The youth need to register and cast their votes. They will energise the body politic and ensure that they help to give South Africa a new vigour and direction. Young people’s cynicism about the shortcomings and failures of politics and the political system in South Africa stand between them registering to vote, in large numbers, and eventually casting a vote.
South Africans will be heading to the polls later in the year to once again elect the party it wants in power. But a study by SA Citizen Surveys (Sacs) shows that a large proportion of youth doesn’t intend to vote due to various reasons.
The study found that of the 11.2 million unregistered voters, about 40% ( 4.5-million), between 18 and 34, will not register to vote.
DA Federal Youth Leader Luyolo Mphithi and EFF Student Command President Peter Keetse talk about how their parties are planning to influence the youth to take part in elections.
Young people in this country don’t feel that they are heard. They don’t feel that their voices are counted and that the issues they are faced with are dealt with. This is the issue that cuts across all political parties.
— Luyolo Mphithi, DA Federal Youth Leader
The DA has done a phenomenal job in trying to articulate what we are saying to young people. We are saying is that we need to be able to inculcate an economy that speaks to entrepreneurship rather than having an economy that has workers.
— Luyolo Mphithi, DA Federal Youth Leader
Mphithi says the DA Youth has championed youth unemployment in order to reduce the stats of unemployed young people in the country.
On the other hand, Keetse says the EFF has been doing some work in institutions of higher learning helping students with some of the challenges they are experiencing.
We have been very firm about the financial exclusion and there is a lot that the Student Command is doing in order to combat financial exclusions.
— Peter Keetse, EFF Student Command President
There are many issues that we are working on which includes the content that is taught in school, speaking freely about the education our students are getting and how is it going to help South Africa in the long run.
— Peter Keetse, EFF Student Command President
The Electoral Commission has announced the weekend of January 26 -27 as the final voter registration weekend for the 2019 National and Provincial Elections.
To hear the rest of the conversation, listen here: