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With the national elections coming up, youth voting for the first time this year are encouraged by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to check out political party manifestos to verify whether what they are being told is in fact true.
Voter education is high on the agenda for the IEC that recently launched its schools democracy programme at Bernadino Heights High School in Kraaifontein.
This annual campaign has 220 schools participating nationwide and aims to educate the youth on voting and elections.
In terms of electoral law, one can be registered at 16 years of age and then carried onto the voters’ roll at 18.
Shaping the future
Joining provincial electoral officer Michael Hendrickse at the school was deputy director-general of the Western Cape Education Department, Alan Meyer.
Hendrickse told learners to make use of their right to vote and to use it to better themselves.
“The sky is no longer the limit, think of the footprints on the moon. Let yourselves not be limited by what people want you to think – politically or otherwise. The answer to how you vote is in your hands.”
Meyer echoed Hendrickse’s comments saying that voting in an election offered the opportunity for the youth to shape their future.
Hendrickse said the IEC continues to lay the foundation for increased youth involvement in voting matters, as voter education is an integral part of the IEC’ mandate in terms of the Electoral Act.
According to him, data shows 47,5% of people registered in the Western Cape were born from 1980 onwards.
“The main objectives of this programme, in collaboration with the provincial education department, are to promote democracy education among youth and to foster a culture of youth voter participation in South African democratic spaces,” he says.
