Voter apathy- a course for concern

The year 1994 marked a new dispensation for South African politics as citizens from all racial groups independently voted for a political party of their choice, for the first time in SA’s political history. A few months before the historic elections, various political organizations campaigned for votes by promising the electorate of delivering basic services for all.

After 17 years of political freedom in the very southern tip of the African continent, many voters, particularly young ones appear to be losing interest in voting for a number of different reasons. Amongst other reasons they claim that they have not seen any development or service delivery in their communities. Service delivery protests have been rife in the past few years with citizens expressing their anger and frustration over what they call the lack of service delivery by the government voted to power by them.

Grievances of certain communities have not been attended to by government and the electorate of such areas has opted to boycott voting in the May 18 local government elections. Voter apathy is predominantly amongst the youth, who are the most affected by unemployment, lack of development and poor service delivery in their communities. It came as no surprise to me when I observed that when others were standing in long queues at voting stations, some young people decided to organize sport tournaments at the expense of casting their votes.

The electorate appears to have had enough of what they term the blame game and empty promises by South African political parties. The youth is done watching the elite of politicians living luxury and lavish lifestyles while the young ones are running up and down the streets as a result of poverty and lack of decent jobs. It is high time that political parties change their ways as far as service delivery is concerned or the continuous voter apathy might mark  the birth of political unrest and civil war in SA, as a result of competition for survival and state resources.