It’s always encouraging when, over a weekend, youths leave wining, dining and other pleasures for debates on political policy matters.
The upshot of such debate, convened by the ANC Youth League last weekend, was a crucial resolution that could lead to the lowering of the voting age.
‘On electoral review,†the league noted, ‘the age of sexual consent was lowered to 16 years … and yet the same people who may … engage in reproductive activities as per the laws of our country are nonetheless disallowed to vote for government. The precise resolution [is] that the voting age must be lowered to 16 years,†the league announced.
One strong point in favour of change is that if the voting age is lowered from the current 18 years, those in high school or about to go to university have a realistic chance of influencing policy. They may vote for politicians they think will represent their interests. If they are 16 and employed, which is quite possible, they would have a say in how they are governed or how their tax money is spent.
But it’s about time we stopped comparing sex with voting. All they really share is that they are supposed to take place in secret (although I have often seen them take place in less secluded circumstances).
Intended to protect minors from sexual predation, the age of consent varies widely across the world. It happens to be 16 in South Africa, but in Peru it is 12 for girls and 14 for boys, while in Tunisia it is 20 for both sexes.
A bit of history may be useful here. The current consent law in the United Kingdom, on which our law is largely modelled, was the fruit of campaigning by activists who fought to raise the age of legal sexual activity from 13 to 16 to prevent child prostitution, rife in the 19th century.
And as medical and prenatal care were expensive or non-existent, it made sense for women to give birth no earlier than at 16, when most reached their mature physical strength.
It could be argued that voting is a less emotionally-driven activity than sex. One has time to sit and rationally consider the candidates before making a careful choice. But, as a Zimbabwean, I have witnessed emotive voters elect crazy politicians on too many occasions.
To own a weapon legally, South Africa’s Firearms Control Act provides that one should be ‘at least 21 years old, although under certain circumstances the applicant can be 18â€. To drive a vehicle, one must also be at least 18 years old.
A gun or car in immature hands could be an unguided missile. And in democracies, the vote is a kind of gun which can be misused to fatal effect.
Shouldn’t the trepidation with which we view a gun in the hands of a 16-year-old also apply to making a cross on the ballot paper?