Despondency and frustration over unemployment kept young voters away from the polls in Colchester on Monday.
ACDP Ward 53 councillor candidate John Gallant said the party had made an effort to encourage youngsters to vote during its election campaign.
“We encouraged a lot of young people to vote and not just complain,” he said in the morning.
“We understand that one of their biggest frustrations is unemployment, but their votes are what will make a change.
“I’m hoping they will start showing up in the afternoon.”
Colchester community leader and ANC member Godfrey Jacob said youngsters lacked enthusiasm to vote because of unemployment.
He said it was one of the top problems faced by residents in the area.
This translated to drug and alcohol abuse and theft, he said.
“Young people are not interested in voting because they see hardly any activity from not only the ruling party but opposition parties too until it’s election year.
“Political parties only start being active when it’s election season. What about the other four years?”
Jacob said he had been on the ground working for the past three elections.
He said people tended to starting showing up only later in the day.
“The other thing is that many people in this area, especially in the coloured and black community, are domestic workers and are at work during the day, despite it being a public holiday.
“The trend for the past few elections is that they start showing up in the late afternoon,” he said.
A 21-year-old resident, who declined to be named, said she was discouraged by a lack of ethical leadership and rising unemployment levels.
“I don’t know who to vote for,” she said.
“What's the use because everyone makes promises, but we’re still unemployed.”
Another resident, who identified herself as Ivory, lives less than a kilometre from her ward’s voting station, but did not vote.
The 26-year-old said voting would have been a waste of her time.
“I voted in 2016 and I won’t do it again.
“The reason I don’t want to vote is that we’ve been living in shacks and cracked houses since early 2000 with no water, no toilets and no electricity and nobody comes to fix anything.
“In my 26 years of life I’ve never had a job, yet every election it’s the same [promises] over and over.”
Ivory was among scores of youngsters who abstained from voting.
Some hung around in groups outside spaza shops and others enjoyed the public holiday in their homes.
Some enthusiastic youngsters’ spirits were dampened when they were turned away and told they had not registered in their wards.
At least 40 people were turned away as their names either appeared to be registered elsewhere or not at all, while they were adamant they had registered at the station.
Jayde Plaatjies said she had been excited about casting what would have been her first vote, but had been turned away.
“I couldn’t understand what they meant when they said my details were not registered,” she said.
“I registered at the same venue during registration weekend in September.
“We were told to add our names to a list of other people who had the same issue, but I don’t think that will help in any way.”
Though she is still a student, she said she had hoped her vote would help bring jobs and housing to the Colchester community.
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