OPINION | Nathan Geffen: The critical issue of low voter turnout needs to be addressed
About 16.3 million people voted, 59% of the 27.8 million registered voters, but less than 40% of the eligible voting population in the 2024 election. Most adult South Africans didn't vote last Wednesday. There are likely many reasons for this, but if we don't fix it, our constitutional democracy will become increasingly imperilled. Populist, anti-democratic parties, especially MKP, benefited the most from the low turnout.Estimating the population over 18 in South Africa isn't easy.
I'm most familiar with the venue where I voted, so I’ll describe the shambles. I got there at 06:45. I doubt there were more than 200 people in front of me. I voted well over four hours later. The queue would move a little, then stop for half an hour or so, and this happened several times. I can only think this was caused by glitches in the voter management devices, a technology which simply seemed unnecessary. The IEC official in charge was out of her depth.
But one must also have some sympathy for the Treasury for the IEC's funding cuts; South Africa's fiscus has been ruined by mass corruption since 2009. Ironically the man most responsible for that, Jacob Zuma, has the most to celebrate after Wednesday's election.That the ANC got hammered percentage-wise is clear. The ANC's results are even worse if you look at the number of votes: more than 10-million in 2019 compared to less than 6.5-million in 2024.
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