Kids today. They sure don’t look much like the passionately charged, driven and determined youth of 1976.

But, then again, why should they?

They’re a generation characterised by kwaito and hip-hop, video games and the internet and all the possibilities that freedom has dumped at their feet. They are far more likely to be texting than toyi-toyiing. After all, the apartheid government was democratically removed from office 15 long years ago. Today it’s about developing the country and the people that the youth of 1976 fought so hard to liberate.

It’s against this background that researchers say it’s high time that political parties begin to better understand the next generation.

In a recent study the Human Sciences Research Council found the notion that young people have stopped participating in politics may be “over-simplistic and a premature conclusion”. More likely what’s happening, says senior researcher Dr Saadhna Panday, is that the nature of their participation has shifted.

Turns out youth were more interested in “issue-based and voluntary participation” as opposed to “political and formal membership”. They say today’s youth participation has expanded far beyond typical activities like, say, canvassing on behalf of their political party. They are more likely to volunteer at their local clinics or work with NGOs — activities which are directly linked to their lives.

The presidency’s Budget Vote in June 2006 indicated that while South Africans remain highly politically conscious, low percentages of youth participate in national elections. The report noted that just 44,5% of the more than 18-million young people were ticking the ballot back then.

It’s not just a South African problem. Globally, fewer youth participate in elections.

According to the United Nations World Youth Report of 2007, politics is too distant from many young people’s daily realities of school, leisure and finding work. They just don’t see the connection.

But there are signs that local youth may be in the process of reclaiming their position in the political arena.

Leaders of the ANC, DA and Cope youth leagues believe that there should be no concern about youth voter apathy in this year’s election.

“The massive registration of young people in the November 7 and 8 2008 registration window period proved that young people are ready and will vote in their numbers in the coming elections,” said ANC Youth League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu.

Independent Electoral Commission figures show that 77,9% of new registrations were in the youth category during the recent voter registration drive. Before the drive, youth in the age group 18 to 29 comprised just 20,4% of all registered voters, but by the end, the figure had jumped to 24,31%, according to IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam.

Cope’s Youth Movement believes it should be credited for resuscitating young people’s interest and participation in politics.

“There was a massive youth apathy before Cope was formed. The youth could not identify with the current youth political structures,” said the group’s spokesperson Sipho Nghona.

But do the political parties know much about the youth voters they are trying to reach?

The youth are “very aspirant, daring and innovative”, Shivambu says, but are limited by a lack of opportunities — as well as information.

But perhaps the ones that are lacking information are the political parties themselves. According to the outcome of recent discussions conducted by the youth research agency Instant Grass, young people “did not feel that government had a solid understanding of the youth”. Only a minority of those surveyed felt that the views of organisations such as the ANCYL carried significant weight with government. But the young people admitted that they were not proactively involved in changing things for the better.

“They tended to leave that to someone else,” the study found.

Will they leave the voting up to someone else, too? Seems the only way we’ll find that out is to wait and see if “generation next” shows up at the ballot box.