‘I am going to spoil my ballot’
Many young people, some voting for the first time, intend to brave the long queues on election day just to spoil their ballot.
|||Durban - As ordinary South African citizens and political parties gear up for local government elections, a series of conversations with young people has sparked an alarming revelation. Many youth, some voting for the first time, have every intention to stand in line to vote on August 3 just so that they can spoil their ballots.
“What do you do when you have no faith in any political parties in South Africa? I am tired of the Nkandla Saga on the part of the ANC, I am tired of what Zuma has done to the legacy left behind our Nelson Mandela. I am sickened by the DA playing the race card to their favour, colour coding their Ward candidates to appeal to the majority race group of that area. This year, it is my first time voting and I am going to intentionally spoil my ballot because I have no faith in the powers that are to be,” said a vehement *Leon Chetty, a resident of Queensburgh in Durban.
Chetty is a first year student, studying BCom Accounting at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In Chetty's words, “If you don't vote, you have no right to complain. If you intentionally spoil your ballot, it is a form of passive resistance and political awareness. It is a way of showing that you came to vote for no confidence in any parties that this country has to offer.”
*Sbu Sizanya, a resident of Seaview in Durban, echoed a similar sentiment to Chetty.
“I am tired of the corruption in government and the DA has been running our Ward for as long as I can remember. At night there are prostitutes on our streets, streetlights do not work, bushes on the side of the roads are never trimmed and crime has gone up so much. Our roads are terrible and every time we call our DA councillor to get something done, they say that our request is being processed. I understand the service delivery protests that we are seeing in recent times. Service delivery is a dream and not real. When voting day comes, I am going to draw my own block on my ballot form, write my own name and vote for myself, just to spoil my ballot and how my disappointment with every party that we currently have.”
These are just two young people of eight that were spoken to. Of the eight, six were planning to spoil their ballots as a form of protest.
As South Africans, we have to ask ourselves if this is surprising at all.
Since 2014, ANC stalwart Ronnie Kasrils has embarked on a campaign for people to spoil their ballots as protest against political parties being unable to deliver on their mandates.
It begs the question, if someone who was once willing to die for the freedom of South Africans was pushed to such disillusionment where he was calling for people to spoil their ballots, is it really surprising at all that millennialsare following suit?
*Not their real names
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