Many youths who made their mark at the polling booths on Wednesday spoke about studying the manifestos of political parties with a high interest in the issue of employment.
Among the youth who voted on Wednesday was 27-year-old Katharina Gensicke at Pinelands High School.
Gensicke, a UCT alumnus, has been applying for jobs for the last six months with no success.
According to the latest Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey, youths aged between 15 and 34 years remained the most vulnerable in the labour market. Of the 10.3 million youths, the number of those unemployed increased by 236 000 to 4.9 million, and about 35.5% were not in employment, education or training.
“This is my third time voting and I believe that it is so important to be part of this democratic process. Unemployment has discouraged a lot of young people from many things including (voting). They have the degrees and skills required in the sectors they want but doors are not opening. I had been employed for about four years but I’m now entering the sixth month of being unemployed.
“It has taken a toll on me but I remain hopeful that I’ll find a job soon. It has also been difficult to look at which political party might be the future but I did my research and went through the manifestos looking at a party that could deal with this crisis and other issues faced by the country,” said Gensicke.
Ntsika Cici, 23, said he also read the different party manifestos and was able to identify a political party that spoke to the issues he believed should be prioritised.
“As young people we are the future so we need to participate and have our say. We need change and I believe that the African Transformation Movement (ATM) best represents the interests of the youth.
“This party spoke about equipping us at foundation or the primary school phase with different programmes so that we are able to also compete with other countries. I hope that young people really went out today to bring the change they want by determining who they want in power. Some believe that there is not much that their votes can do but that is not true,” said Cici.
A 29-year-old first-time voter at the Cape Town Civic Centre said she convinced herself that she wanted to be part of the people who made an impact in whatever way.
“In the previous years I just had an attitude that whoever wins, wins. Now I wanted to be part of decision-making irrespective of which political party wins. I believe being here means I’m serving my nation. There has been a lot of mismanagement of state resources with little to no accountability. For me that has been the setback in our country because we are losing a lot,” she said.
“Our country has so much potential. We have the right laws and legislation but lack of implementation and consequence management.
“This has discouraged many people,” she said.
Cape Times