Only one third of South Africans support democracy as a form of government. This observation was highlighted by Professor Robert Mattes from the University of Cape Town during his recent visit to Grahamstown
Only one third of South Africans support democracy as a form of government. This observation was highlighted by Professor Robert Mattes from the University of Cape Town during his recent visit to Grahamstown
In his lecture titled 'Born Frees: youth attitudes towards democracy,' Professor Robert Mattes observed that “South Africa’s embrace of democracy can be labelled as lukewarm at best,” and as a result voter turnout numbers dropped by 30% in the decade since our first democratic elections. "Turnout at elections fell from 86% in 1994 to 56% by 2004," he said.
The number increased somewhat in 2009 when Cope challenged the ANC, but voters still didn't reach 60% of the voting population.
According to his research, Mattes found that only a third of South Africans actually support democracy. "Our country has a lower voter turnout than the United States, which is known to have slack citizen responses to elections. In South Africa, participation between elections is especially low," Mattes observed.
His research emphasises that few people contacted their members of parliament or local councillors compared to other countries. While this apathy to government is particularly prevalent in today's younger citizens, this phenomenon exists across all generations of South African society.
Mattes identified five distinct political generations, each associated with an era characterised internally by continuity in social, economic and political trends.
Voter generation transformation
The pre-apartheid generation reached their politically formative years (defined by Mattes as the age of 16) before the historic victory of the National Party in the 1948 election. The next group, the early apartheid generation, comprised of people who turned 16 between 1948 and 1960, meaning that they have no working memory of life before the rise of the National Party.
The third, the grand apartheid generation, consisted of citizens who turned 16 between 1961 and 1975. After this emerged the 'struggle generation', consisting of people who turned 16 between 1976 and 1996.
From January 1997 individuals aged 16 to 18 entered the political arena with little if any first-hand experience of the trauma that came before. This generation became known as the born frees. "Although born free, this generation faces the same – if not greater – levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality as their parents," Mattes said.
He believes that official race segregation has been replaced by informal class segregation. This is emphasised as the majority of previously disadvantaged youth have entered schools ripe with struggles, including poorly trained teachers and few facilities.
Mattes further notes that this youngest generation also has to confront lifestyle changes such as escalating violent crime and HIV infection.
Below are the statistics for the IEC Voter Registration by year:
