Understanding youth participation in politics and democratic processes in Thembisa, Johannesburg

Abstract

Youth participation in politics and democratic processes has been in gradual decline in South Africa since the inception of democracy in 1994. Democracy in South Africa is still new as 2024 marks 30 years of democracy. For democracy to survive, requires active participation from its citizens as it is their duty. However, apathy in conventional political processes is causing a threat to democracy as the voter turnout declines. This study focuses on youth participation in unconventional forms of participation in Thembisa, Johannesburg as it explores how the youth participate and engage in politics and identifies the alternative avenues the youth participate in. Results have shown that there is a growing trend in conventional forms of participation, and I argue that this is a result of dissatisfaction in formal politics as there is growing participation in unconventional forms of participation. Many scholars have engaged on the apathy of youth in formal politics. Data was collected using qualitative research methods mainly in-depth interviews to acquire an in-depth understanding of youth understanding of politics and democratic processes. Purposive sampling was applied to find participants for this study. Participants were between the ages of 18-35 years and consisted of ten young men and ten young women from various political backgrounds. Participation-observation was also used as there are some reports from public meetings attended. Thematic analysis was used in analysing the data gathered into themes. Findings from this study show that the youth have lost trust in conventional forms of participation as the youth feel excluded from the democratic process. Claims of corruption to obtain employment as the country experiences a high rate of unemployment and underrepresentation of the youth in the parliament discourages the youth from participating. Lack of civic education as the youth only start to learn more about political participation and civic knowledge when enrolled at higher education institutions. Therefore, making the youth not know what channels to follow to make their leaders accountable and sometimes due to the disillusionment they choose to be apathetic. Alternative avenues such as protests make the youth reluctant to participate due to the nature of protests being violent and participation in social media platforms remains low. This study revealed that the youth’s participation is also low in alternative avenues, however, social media is used and still a growing method among the youth and they still prefer voting as their form of participation in politics and democratic processes.