Webinar on youth engagement in elections in South Africa

Participation in elections is a key tenet in a democracy. South Africa will hold its seventh general election since the end of apartheid on 29 May 2024. A 2019 report on the national and provincial elections by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has shown a continuous decline in youth participation in elections. This downward trend has been consistent with global voter trends since the 1990s. However, there is a need to intervene to reverse this trajectory. Consequently, the IEC in its 2019 report called for the combined efforts of all the relevant stakeholders to tackle political apathy among the youth and find ways of bringing young people into the democratic space. Towards this end, the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria is holding a webinar on youth participation in South Africa’s elections.

Objectives of the webinar
The webinar seeks to achieve the following objectives:

To assess the level of youth participation and engagement in politics and elections in South Africa.
To diagnose the possible causes of the decline of youth participation in elections in South Africa.
To investigate the nature and integrity of the information disseminated to young voters and its impact on their interest and participation in politics and elections.
To recommend possible interventions to ensure increased youth participation in elections and engagement in politics, particularly in the 2024 elections.