South Africa elections: Do youths trust political parties?
It's been 30 years since South Africa's first democratic election. With several corruption scandals, high levels of inequality and unemployment, we wanted to find out in our Street Debate if young people still believe political parties will fulfill their promises.
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00:00Hello and welcome back to the 77% Street Debate.
00:10My name is Edith Kimani and this week we are back in the gorgeous city of Johannesburg
00:14in South Africa.
00:15Now this country goes to the polls at the end of May for the fifth time ever in the
00:20country's democratic history and with over 350 registered political parties, the people
00:25surely have a long list to choose from.
00:28So today we are asking, do those political parties represent the issues of the youth?
00:32Who better to answer this question for me than some fellow South Africans?
00:35And I want to start with someone who's just 19 to just give me a picture of what South
00:40Africa is at the moment, the issues, the pertinent issues for the youth right now.
00:44What are they, Otsile?
00:45South Africa is a country that is on fire.
00:48People in our country right now are suffering because of high rates of unemployment, gender-based
00:52violence.
00:53Criminality and crime is at a rate that is unprecedented in democratic South Africa.
00:58For young people, people who are going to have to build our lives in the next 5, 10,
01:0215 years right now, someone my age, 19, for us it's pertinent that we begin addressing
01:08these issues because they're the ones that are going to impact the type of lifestyle
01:10my family will have when I begin having a family.
01:14So South Africa just celebrated 30 years of democracy.
01:17Do you feel like those promises that were made in 94 have all sort of gone down the
01:21drain?
01:23Some have materialized but the ones that were most important to people like equity, justice,
01:27economic justice, those have not been materialized in our society.
01:31Go just a few kilometers away from here to Alexandra or Santon, you know, you see the
01:36disparity there.
01:37One end has high rises, has manicured lawns, people there don't worry about what they're
01:43going to eat tomorrow morning.
01:44On the other end, you have people who are trying to decide whether or not they'll be
01:49able to pay their rent or pay for transport to get to work or whether they'll be able
01:52to feed themselves and their children.
01:54And it's against this backdrop that you're going to the polls, as I mentioned, for the
01:57fifth time.
01:58So Wellington, you represent the youth league of the ANC, the party that's been at the helm
02:02for the last 30 years.
02:04When you hear somebody like Otsile speaking like this, do you think your party has done
02:08enough in those years?
02:09Our party has done what it could all this time and everything doesn't seem as what it
02:15is because all those manicured lawns and all those big buildings he speaks about within
02:20Santon and Alexandria, the contrast between the two.
02:25The people that are from Alexandra do get work from there, there is some sort of remuneration
02:29they get to feed the families there.
02:31But what you can say is that it might be slow as how our ruling party has been doing things,
02:39but then it's not safe to say there's nothing being done.
02:42I'll come back to you on what exactly you've been doing, but somebody who might have a
02:45different view is FASER, one of the new parties, in fact, brand new Rais Mzansi.
02:51Do you believe what Wellington is saying there?
02:53We are one of the most unequal countries in the world.
02:57The people who are most affected are youth, are women and are black.
03:01And it's just, it's years of maladministration and corruption within the political parties.
03:08And it's the reason why Rais Mzansi have started, it started by a group of South Africans who
03:14haven't found a political home that truly represents our interests and aspirations of
03:19this country.
03:20OK, so let me speak to Mweketse here for a second, because you're working with an organisation
03:25that's sort of looking at things from a bird's eye view.
03:29Which side is more representative of where South Africans fall?
03:33Young people are active.
03:34Young people care about this country, right?
03:37But I think for me, what I think I would love the political parties to consider is
03:41actually do not politicise public participation processes.
03:44Young people, you know, care more about bread and butter issues, right?
03:48Can I feed my family?
03:49Do I have a decent school to go to?
03:51After I finish with employment, with university or high school, you know, do I have a job
03:56that is guaranteed for me, right?
03:58OK, let me ask the people who are at the back.
04:00How many of you intend to vote by show of hands?
04:04Let's see.
04:05You didn't raise your hand.
04:06Can you tell me why?
04:07We are not really able to vote because South African political parties don't fulfil our
04:11promises and they are not taking our matters to us.
04:15And we are struggling as black youth.
04:17So Lesedi, you are, I would say, a champion of ANC, a very big supporter.
04:24And when you hear a young fellow like this saying the ANC, the people who are in power,
04:28they're not really working for us, what would possess you, one might ask, to continue voting
04:33for the ANC?
04:35So for me, I look at what the ANC have done.
04:38I look at their track record in terms of how have they been able to transform society from
04:43a space where there was zero participation of black people in the key sectors of the
04:48economy, to now this expanded participation, there's more black people, there's a rising
04:53middle class amongst black people, there's more black people that are getting educated.
04:57And so what we must remember is that this imperative to transform society that the ANC
05:04promised in 1994 was a difficult job that they had to do.
05:08They've promised their people and they've tried to go and deliver results.
05:11So Otsele, let's come back to the issues again for young people.
05:14What are some of the things for you that are so critical?
05:17Load sharing needs to be resolved.
05:18Unemployment needs to be resolved.
05:20These are key issues that are holding South Africa back and that are holding young people
05:23back.
05:24You know, we hear all of this talk about third forces.
05:26I mean, it's not third forces that led to the destruction of ESCOM and the breakdown
05:30of Madupi and Kusile.
05:33It was cronyism.
05:34It was favoring of people that are in the same circles as the people in power.
05:40The hammer has to land from the top.
05:42But when the top is compromised, what is there left?
05:45So let's hear some solutions.
05:46What needs to be done now by the parties, by the people of South Africa to make this
05:50a country that you want?
05:52It is important to show up to vote because what it does is that, you know, it makes it
05:57difficult for the political parties who are here and even independent candidates, because
06:01I think we won't be doing ourselves justice as young people to only talk about, you know,
06:06the Yellow Party, the Blue Party, the Red Party and the Purple Party.
06:09We must also emphasize and also engage with independent candidates because I think oftentimes
06:14even the messaging around, you know, voting and so on, particularly in this country with
06:18young people, it only ends their goal and vote for us and all those things.
06:21And sometimes you find that, again, resources have been politicized where some political
06:25parties, when you engage with young people, they'll say, you know, we've been told that
06:29we must vote for this party because they'll give us jobs.
06:31But I'm going to encourage all of us here as young people.
06:33It doesn't stop there.
06:34We must follow up on the vote.
06:35We must follow up on those demands that we made to say, these are my demands as Mwekezi,
06:39right?
06:40And, you know, I'm following up.
06:41I know you mentioned the political process seems to end on the day of election for most
06:45young people.
06:47What can young people and indeed political parties do to move the country forward?
06:50I think political hygiene is at the center of everything because if you've got young
06:54men and women in parliament, but then they're still corrupt, I'm capacitating the state
06:58with capable and educated individuals is the second one.
07:03And also we need to invest in the country.
07:05All right.
07:06Let's hear from Faiza.
07:07What do you think the country needs?
07:08So my brother said corruption.
07:10To solve a corruption is to prevent it.
07:12So the way how we hire and fire our politician, it needs to be according to work culture.
07:18So our senior leaderships like the head of police commissioner or DGs who have enormous
07:22power to bring change.
07:24They need to go through, undergo a transparent, a brutal transparent interview process by
07:30an independent panel.
07:32So then the public can politically scrutinize.
07:34The second thing is our procurement system is where the heart of corruption lies.
07:39And so we're saying that we need to introduce technology like blockchain to be able to transparently
07:43see who is getting the tender, how many people have bidded.
07:47And if they continue to see Faiza who have been getting the tenders, the public are able
07:51to easily to hold some people accountable.
07:53Wellington, let me hear from you.
07:55As to the young, I just like them to stay not pessimistic because if you want to attract
08:00a pessimistic attitude, if you have a pessimistic attitude, obviously you're not going to, if
08:05you're not going out there finding information and finding all these things, motivate yourself,
08:10try to know better.
08:11How can you say you're not being supported if you didn't even try?
08:14So we started this debate with Otsele and I want to conclude with him, right?
08:17What do you think your people, when you're in party, when you're in politics, what are
08:22the things that you want to see?
08:23We want to see better accountability.
08:25We have a state capture report that names people that are still in government.
08:29Nothing's been actioned on it.
08:31We just want a functional country.
08:33We just want to live harmoniously.
08:35We just want to live in a country that reflects the vision that was set out when we reached
08:391994.
08:41And it was said that our worst days were behind us.
08:44We can feel that the nation's on autopilot and the people running in the opposition,
08:47the people running just generally in this election, none of them inspire us to feel
08:51that South Africa is going to be better.
08:53He says to us, don't be pessimistic, but we're only pessimistic because we've been paying
08:56attention for the last 30 years.
08:58Well, that's a beautiful place.
09:00As grim as it sounds, it is a great place to wrap this debate.
09:04Thank you all for watching.
09:05I did like what you said.
09:06It matters not which cat gets into government so long as that cat can catch the mice.
09:12Thank you for watching.