Nontando Nolutshungu | South Africans must reclaim the power of the vote

In April 1994, South Africa stood at the threshold of history. For the first time, millions of Black South Africans long denied political recognition in the land of their birth were able to cast their votes in a democratic election. The moment was deeply emotional, and hard-won as elderly men and women who had lived their entire lives under apartheid rule stood in long queues, some for hours, determined to participate in an act that had been violently denied to them.

Many arrived with walking sticks, with children on their backs, with memories of pass laws, forced removals, prohibition, violence and imprisonment. 27 April 1994 was a moment of victory.
The right to vote in South Africa was fought for through decades of resistance, sacrifice, and struggle. Generations of activists, workers, students, and ordinary citizens endured detention, exile, torture, and death in pursuit of a democratic system in which the Black majority would have a voice.

The ballot in 1994 symbolised political participation and represented dignity, recognition, and the promise of a new society. It was a declaration that those who had been excluded would now help shape the future.

However, over the decades that followed, that sense of urgency and collective purpose has steadily declined. While South Africa continues to hold regular elections, voter turnout has dropped significantly since 1994. More recent elections have seen participation fall to around 59% of registered voters, with even lower engagement when considering the total voting-age population. This decline is particularly pronounced among young people, many of whom were born after 1994 and do not carry the same lived memory of exclusion from the political system.

The reasons for this decline are complex, but they are rooted in both material conditions and political experience. For many South Africans, especially those in working-class communities, the promise of democracy has not translated into meaningful improvements in their daily lives.

Persistent inequality, high unemployment, inadequate service delivery, and ongoing poverty have created a growing sense of disillusionment. When the material conditions of life remain largely unchanged, participation in elections can begin to feel disconnected from real change.

At the local level, this disillusionment is often most visible. Communities continue to face unreliable water supply, electricity interruptions, deteriorating infrastructure, and housing shortages. When municipal governments fail to address these issues effectively, trust in the political system erodes. For many, the question becomes not whether they have the right to vote, but whether that vote has any real impact.

There is also a generational dimension to declining participation. Those who lived through apartheid understood the vote as something that had been denied and fought for. For younger generations, born into a democratic South Africa, the right to vote is often experienced as something that has always existed.

Without a direct connection to the struggles that secured it, the act of voting can appear less urgent, less meaningful, and more easily abandoned. At the same time, structural barriers continue to limit participation.

Many eligible voters are not registered due to administrative challenges with the IEC that make it more difficult to maintain an accurate presence on the voters’ roll. Others lack access to identity documents or face logistical obstacles that discourage registration. These barriers reinforce patterns of exclusion, even within a formally democratic system.

The decline in voter turnout has serious implications for the health of South Africa’s democracy. When fewer people participate, the legitimacy of electoral outcomes is weakened, and the system becomes less representative of the population as a whole. Decisions about governance, resource allocation, and development priorities are increasingly shaped by a smaller and more selective group of voters.

In such conditions, the link between the state and the people begins to weaken, and accountability becomes more difficult to enforce.

However, the answer to disillusionment cannot be withdrawal. The conditions that frustrate people such as poor services, unemployment, and inequality are precisely the issues that require greater democratic participation, not less. To step away from the political process is to surrender the very tool that can be used to demand accountability and change.

Reclaiming the power of the vote begins with a return to its foundations: starting with registration. Being on the voters’ roll is the first act of participation, the point at which individuals move from being passive subjects of governance to active participants in it. Without registration, there is no vote and without a vote, there is no influence.

But beyond the mechanics of registration lies the deeper task of reconnecting the meaning of voting to the realities of everyday life. Voting must once again be understood not as an isolated event, but as part of a broader struggle for dignity, equality, and justice. It must be linked to the issues people face daily which are the quality of public services, access to opportunities, and the conditions of their communities.

The memory of 1994 serves as both an inspiration and a warning. It reminds us of what was achieved through collective action, but it also highlights what is at risk when participation declines. The queues of 1994 were more than just about electing a government; they were about asserting people's right to exist politically. That responsibility has not disappeared but has simply changed form.

Today, the challenge is not to win the right to vote, but to use it. To register, to participate, and to ensure that democracy remains a living, active force in the lives of ordinary South Africans. The EFF, therefore, calls on the broader South African community to join us as we launch our mass registration mission on the 21st of March, because the power that was fought for in 1994 can only be preserved if it is exercised.

Nontando Nolutshungu is the National Chairperson of the Economic Freedom Fighters