Key factors influencing youth participation

Dear Editor,

ACROSS the ten provinces a number of common factors are identified as influencing youth engagement and participation in civic and political life.

Concerns about unemployment. Unemployment and the lack of job opportunities, even for well-educated graduates, were leading concerns for youth across the provinces. Unemployment is the cause of dissatisfaction with government and political leadership, an election priority issue, a cause around which youth were organising themselves.

In some cases, unemployment was also seen as a cause of unruly behaviour.

• Gender. In many provinces, young women are less likely to participate in political life than young men.

• Social media. Social media is described as having provided a positive platform for youth to engage in online debates, organise, build networks, and voice their opinions, outside of traditional forms of media and political dialogue.

Factors specifically influencing political participation included the following:

• Distrust of politics and political parties. In many concerns, youths associated politics and politicians with corruption, dishonesty and unfulfilled promises. Many youths avoided politics, and preferred to become active within civil society.

• Distrust of their local leadership because of selective loyalty.

• Under-representation within government and political parties. In many structures, youth feel targeted by politicians seeking votes during election campaigns. However, once elections are over, they are not adequately represented in political parties or in government.

Even where young candidates were elected, they often feel they have no political power, and were excluded from the decision-making processes.

Many feel their peers would be more likely to turn out at the polls if more young candidates are appointed to meaningful, influential and prominent positions.

Factors hindering young candidates running for elected office included:

• Patronage and resources. Young candidates see patronage networks and a lack of financial resources as obstacles if they were interested in running for elected office. Wellresourced candidates and political parties in a number of structures are described as buying support through giving out cash and gifts, such as money.

Strategies identified to increase youth participation in future include:

• Increasing voter education, particularly in opposition parties’ strongholds and ruling party strongholds with a history of closed, non-competitive elections with hand picked package of seeking the party functionaries.

• Challenging perceptions about the inability of youth and women to occupy leadership positions.

• Changing age limits for candidates running for elective office.

• Creating platforms for sustained youth engagement.

• Building networks between youth movements across structures in provinces.

The list is endless.