South African elections are taking place on the 29th of May, a few days after my birthday. Representatives will be chosen at the national, provincial, and municipal level. As a country, we have to do our best to oust the ANC. Who will ally with EFF, MK, and other small groups lusting for the smallest taste of power. The Rainbow Alliance is an anti-ANC coalition group and I would like to urge my South African followers to vote for any of the member parties thereof: ActionSA, the DA, BOSA, the PA.
Over the weekend, it came to my attention that influencers had to get the youth to register to vote. I'm not a fan of content creators in general as some of them are sketchy and narcissistic. This is a lone instance of me respecting influencers. Which begs the question, how did it get this far? The grandparents and parents of the youth fought for the right to vote, losing their life or their freedom. And young people in South Africa just ignore that. They won't vote but they are the first to complain about load shedding, unemployment, water shedding, high crime rates, the expenses of tertiary education, the high cost of public transport, health facilities inadequately staffed and resourced, the ever-increasing cost of fuel, the poor quality of food sold at exorbitant prices, bank manipulation, the high cost of mobile data, natural disasters brought on by climate change, water pollution, closing down of tourist attractions, among others.
I start looking at how other countries are getting rid of voter apathy. Japanese polling stations provide free ramen to the youth. In Thailand, it's a fineable offence not to vote. Which approach will work best for South Africa? Carrot or stick? I do not know. What I do know is that each vote counts. "One voice is enough to make sleeping giants wake up": Thousand Foot Krutch, Untraveled Road. I'm doing my part to change the governing regime in my country. Are you?