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This weekend’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) voter-registration campaign is targeting at least 1 million new voters, particularly the youth.
The Young Free and Educated programme, aimed at alleviating drinking and driving among South African youth, joined the registration drive.
The programme launched a voter-registration campaign at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Ga-Rankuwa campus on Friday.
Leigh Mkhondo, a facilitator and media liaison officer at the programme, said their month-long campaign’s launch was attended by 600 students.
Representatives of the IEC and the department of home affairs addressed students’ queries about voter registration and voting processes.
Lechesa Tsenoli, the deputy speaker of Parliament, encouraged students to vote.
City Press reporters asked young South Africans in Gauteng and Mpumalanga whether they planned to heed the IEC’s call and register to vote in the local government elections.
. Gundo Singo (19), a first-year geology and physics student at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), said: “I am not interested in politics. It’s as simple as that.
“So I am not going to register to vote. I prefer staying out of politics because I don’t feel it ever achieves anything for us.”
. Keorapetse Kunutu (18), a first-year accounting student at UJ, said: “Yes, I am going to register and make sure that I vote.
“If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain about the issues that need to be tackled.
“My voice matters and I want to be a part of the process that changes the way things are happening in the country.”
. Callum Kennedy (18), a matric pupil at Education Incorporated in Fourways, Johannesburg, said: “I turned 18 last year and I went in today to register and it was such a breeze. I think that, for a democracy to work, you need everyone in the society to vote.
“You can’t just have the more educated or less educated people voting. You need everyone’s opinion for a democracy to be effective.
“The DA got in touch with me this year, which I liked. They reached out to people and started explaining the whole process.
“So I thought that, being a South African citizen, I should register and vote for who I think should run the country.”
. Sifiso Mnisi (19) is unemployed, even though he matriculated at Njeyeza High School in the rural village of Schoemansdal near Malelane last year.
He said: “I’ve registered to vote. I’m an SA Communist Party member, but I expect the party I’ll vote for to create jobs because I’ve been unemployed since I finished matric last year. There should be recreational facilities and street lights because of crime.”
. Musa Palmer (19), a Grade 12 pupil at Lugebhuta High School in Schoemansdal, said: “First of all, schools must have recreational facilities because we get bored ... a healthy body resides in a healthy mind. There is also too much crime, which must be dealt with. Our roads are very bad and I don’t see much development.
“I’ll cast my vote for the ANC, to give them a chance.”
