PODCAST: What young people think about voting
Making the X on the ballot on 29 May does not hold the
same significance for all first-time voters.
Some young people who say they will bring out their vote - by not voting. In the second episode of our limited series elections podcast, the Jacaranda FM News team hears what young people think of the elections and why some feel no-one is listening...
Listen to the episode by clicking on the arrow underneath:
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says 42% of those who registered to vote in the National and Provincial Elections on 29 May 2024, are between the ages of 18 and 39.
That's 11.7 million of the 27.79 million registered voters.
Tlotlego Ranchu is a 22-year-old student in Johannesburg and says it is every young South African’s responsibility to shape the country's future.
"The decision to register to vote for the very first time was influenced by a couple of factors. I think I felt the sense of responsibility of maybe shaping the future of not just my community but the country as a whole."
Her fellow students at the University of the Witwatersrand are not all in agreement.
"I am not registered to vote because I have no trust in the government, I feel like they corrupt the vote. I feel like the election process is corrupt and not transparent, I cannot trust anything," said one of the institution's students, who asked to remain anonymous.
We hear from them and pose their questions to the ANC, DA and EFF to get some answers.
Meanwhile, making our mark on 29 May will be a historic act in itself, because it will be the first time that each voter will be handed three ballot papers.
In the first episode of Elections 2024 – The Power of your X, the Jacaranda FM News team explained the voting process and why we’ll be asked to put three votes in the ballot box.
Elections 2024 – The Power of your X is an original limited Jacpod series.
It was researched, written, produced and presented by the Jacaranda FM News team for Jacaranda FM.