I'm Launching One Million For Democracy

It's been just over a year a half since I got a call at 10pm one November night from the Office of the President, Cyril Ramaphosa, telling me that I had been appointed to the board of South Africa's National Youth Development Agency.

Being a political outsider and coming from the world of startups, it's been an absolute rollercoaster coming to grips with public governance on a scale like this. Everything I knew up to that point was "move fast and break things" and running extremely lean. Suddenly I was in a world of processes so slow, and budgets so big, that it was like I had stepped into another universe.

It also gave me a new found respect for why governance is like this. Tens of millions of people and businesses will base their lives and strategies on the decision government makes. The youth, aged 18–34, constitute nearly a third of South Africa's adult population. We can't move too fast because it's essential that we create the stability and framework that the private sector can build upon, and the processes ensure fairness and that our power is kept in check.

Being given a role and platform like this is immensely humbling. Having built DigsConnect.com from the ground up with Greg, I never really felt imposter syndrome because I knew every step that had gone into creating it. Being appointed to something that already exists is an entirely different story, and it's been a scramble to feel like I'm adding value and ensuring that the agency can carry out a mandate that feels, at times, like South Africa's entire future depends on it.

So for the first part of my tenure, I just stuck to my role of corporate governance and oversight. Slowly I started adding more and more side projects on to that, feeling how the cogs of governance work.

Then in late July this year, I decided to launch my biggest project yet, so that I can do justice to the incredible trust placed in me with this role.

Next year is the national election. 30 years of democracy in South Africa. And since I'm 30 years old, it feels auspicious.

Youth participation in democracy is dismal. Of the nearly 1.8 million people in the 18–19-year-old age group eligible to vote in the last election, 90% did not register (IEC 2021). Similarly, less than 20% of the population aged 20–34 registered to vote, in contrast to over 90% of the population aged 40 and older (IEC 2021).

The South African youth vote less readily than older cohorts almost everywhere. This is intriguing – not least because, in most countries, as a cohort, they have more voting power than others – but also because compared to older generations, a much bigger proportion of young people today have higher levels of education on average – a factor conventionally linked to greater turnout rates.

In the 2021 local election, more than 13 million eligible South Africans did not register to vote. This translates to about one in three eligible voters in fact being no-voters (Daily Maverick). To put this in perspective, in the last election the ANC won a 62% majority with just over 10 million votes.

My generation is detached from the idea that they have the responsibility, born out of a right that millions died for, to decide what the future of our country should look like. It's this pervasive indifference, a huge shrugging of shoulders (but continued grumbling about the state of the world). Our task is to communicate that democracy only works when everyone opts in.

But that being said, how a government works, how policy is decided, how service delivery happens, where accountability (!!!) happens and what a representational democracy is, is poorly communicated. For some bizarre reason, we're not taught it at school. And the reasonable, moderate politicians that do try to communicate this are drowned out by populist showman antics. No wonder my generation thinks government is a circus, instead of the very foundation of our lives as modern citizens operating in a hyper-connected global economy.

So I'm launching an initiative called One Million For Democracy.

Our goal is to register one million young people for the 2024 national election in May, and then get them to the polls on election day.

I've started recruiting the most incredible team to make this campaign everything it can be, including Thalia Bruinders who is responsible for the stunning branding, visuals and content you see on this post (quite an upgrade from the usual, rather sleepy, government communication) and a veritable army of volunteers in the tens of thousands. We're going big.

Critically, I also wanted to change the narrative of youth in South Africa. I don't need to mince words about the dire state of youth employment and affairs. And so while it's critical that we focus our efforts on offering support, opportunities, programmes and help, I'm so wary of creating a sort of internalised psychology in the South African youth of victimhood. I've been consumed with the idea of how to change this to a state of empowerment, of strength, of responsibility. Nothing will bring this country to its knees faster than creating a culture of handouts, instead of a culture of entrepreneurship of spirt.

To take control of ones destiny means to get stuck into the world around us, to take part, to join the conversation, to shape the conversation. For many South Africans living in desperate situations, I believe that their right to vote is a critical step in their growth, independence and self-actualisation as active citizens capable of contributing to the economy and country.

In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing more information about the team we're putting together, a link to our website where you can check your registration status and register (and make sure your friends and family register), the partners we're bringing on board and the progress we're making. We're learning all we can from previous campaigns on what worked and what didn't, both locally and abroad. We'll soon start our fundraising drive.

If this is something you care about, and you're keen to get involved in any shape or form, please reach out to me on alexandria.procter@nyda.gov.za. Democracy only works when we all opt in.