Youth Should Honour the 1976 Generation by Registering to Vote in 2024

16 June 2023

ActionSA believes South African Youth should honour the legacy of those who died in the 1976 student uprising by registering to vote in the upcoming 2024 elections to remove the ANC and put South Africa back on a path of prosperity.

At the launch of ActionSA’s voter registration campaign at Thokoza Park, Soweto, on Youth Day today where we helped to register hundreds of new voters, I shared that South African Youth have the power to reclaim their future. But they can only do that if they register to vote, and cast their ballots to remove the ANC.

Next year’s elections will be the first time since 1994 that the real opportunity exists to remove the ANC from power and start fixing South Africa to create a better life for the Youth today and generations to come.

ActionSA believes that the dreams and visions of the 1976 generation have not been achieved, and instead, the ANC have used South Africa’s democracy to enrich themselves and their cronies. The best way to honour those who have fought and died in the Soweto Uprising would be to register to vote to remove the ANC.

In the 2019 national government elections, a mere 17.6 million of the estimated 35.9 million people eligible to vote voted. That means that while 57.5% of the total amount of votes cast went to the ANC, the ANC in real terms only enjoys less than 28% of the support of eligible voters in South Africa.

In the 2021 municipal elections, 27 million eligible South African voters didn’t participate in the elections. If half of those eligible voters participate in the national elections next year, the ANC’s majority will easily be broken and a coalition government which serves the people will be able to be installed.

That is why ActionSA will in the months ahead expand the voter registration campaign to all nine provinces to galvanise South Africans to head to the polls and bring about positive change to the country.

Too many people have fought and died for the right to participate in democracy in South Africa and that is why ActionSA believes Youth should use that right to ensure a better life for themselves and their children.

If voters do not participate in South Africa’s democracy, they enable the ANC to continue looting the country’s coffers and implementing policies which kill jobs and lead to worse service delivery for all, higher crime and poorer quality of life.

ActionSA, a party which values electoral reform to make politicians more accountable to the people they serve, will spend the months ahead registering unregistered voters to help convince them that an alternative to the current broken government is possible.

Issued by ActionSA, 16 June 2023