Luvuyo Kakaza
VOTE ANC! A battered poster with the beaming face of Thabo Mbeki obscurely hangs on homemade soccer poles at a park in Hillbrow. It’s two days after the elections and the counting of votes has not stopped at the Independent Electoral Commission centre in Pretoria.
Meanwhile, at this park-cum-soccer field, aspirant soccer players are scoring their goals. While throngs of people headed to the polls, many of these youth did not bother.
Here at the Hillbrow park, the Young Lions Football Club’s gifted players hope that Mbeki will keep to Nelson Mandela’s principles of democracy. They trust Mbeki because they believe he is cut from the same cloth as Mandela, but this does not mean they voted for him. Many youths didn’t take part in the elections, because they didn’t see any of their issues in the campaigns.
“We are not revolutionary youth that threw petrol bombs at some informer’s house in the 1960s We are fun-loving people but that does not mean we have no ideas. We listen to kwaito, we are into the latest fashion, abuse of booze and drugs is also taking its toll. We’re sexually active people and society will keep on questioning us and not understand why these things are happening unless we are fully part of government-aligned youth structures,” says Themba Matile, a Young Lions team member.
It suits him better to lead his team to become professional soccer players than to take a position in the Youth Commission or to wait for hours in a voting queue.
“The Youth Commission are a serious bunch of people who aspire to be intellectuals or future politicians. They lack ideas to draw more young people to their side and try to help the socio-economic issues faced by us. Popular culture could be one way to lure young people,” he adds.
Matile maintains that young people are often referred to by “politically-aligned youth” as a new kind of “lost generation” who – unlike the original “lost generation” that sacrificed their lives for politics in the 1970s and 1980s – are not interested in politics. Matile says this division means the voices of many of today’s ordinary youth remain unheard.
“We are part of the rainbow nation and are aware of problems facing us in our society. We are aware of the Aids epidemic and young people who prostitute themselves. We see them fading away each day. And this is the true reflection of our society that needs to be dealt with. Perhaps more ballot papers won’t be a waste.”
A few blocks from the park, Matile’s words find their echo on the street. The sun slants from somewhere over Ponte and shines through the mini-skirts of young black prostitutes who have come in search of clients. To them politics are not important.
“Why should I vote when I don’t have a roof over my head? With my matric results I could not go anywhere. No funding for me at university level and I had no experience to get a receptionist job. Soweto also haunted me, no facilities to start a small business. Business works well right here,” said a 20- something sex worker with one eye on the passing traffic.
Downtown Johannesburg’s Smal Street shopping complex and the nearby Carlton Centre are thronged by young people sporting the latest fashion with foreign labels like Diesel, Levis, Pelle and Fubu.
These designer youths have little to say about elections or political issues in their country. But Mbeki remains their political icon.
Still sporting the electoral black ink on her left thumb, hair stylist Nomavenda Monco (26) is busy at work. She says she has little time for politics, but she went to the polls anyway because she believes this will help keep democracy in place. “I’ve thrown enough stones in my time and helped bring democracy. But the day one corrupt politician turns this country into a mess like most other African leaders, I’m out. Mbeki is the right man to take over because he stands for what Nelson Mandela stood for.”
Sweetness Gxoyiya (30) holds a different view. “Politics is a dirty game and I don’t trust any politician,” she says. “Look at Parliament today. It is so non-youth. There must be something wrong going on there when the majority of the population [the youth] is not represented there.”
Outside of Johannesburg, the plush Sandton Square is also lined with young people – but the vibe is rather different. Young white people gulp Coca-Cola and spill popcorn as they wait in a queue to enter the movie house. Coming to movies is a usual routine for the youth in Sandton.
A blond jock in the queue sums it up.”If I can get to see my favourite movie every week, do well in my job and make my girlfriend happy, then why should I care much about what goes on in Parliament where seats are full of corrupt politicians,” says Eugene Smith (20).
“Democracy is boring for me now. The exciting times happened in the Mandela era. It was interesting to see the end of apartheid and implementation of democracy.”