Youth Participation In Democratic Governance

By Reverend Jan Scholtz

From my point of view the role of youth in a democracy is to be evaluators of all systems, be it political, economic or otherwise. In order to do this, the youth must be morally upright, possessing correct reasoning and acceptable behaviour. Youths who are integral part of a democratic society need to be a driving force in social, economic and political change. They should be of an independent mind, free from manipulation from anybody; it is not any use to have youths who can not stand on their own but are constantly being used to foster ideals which are not their own.

The behaviour portrayed by some youths so far can be compared to the image of a person who jumps upwards and then starts looking for somewhere to land on, but by logical reason you have to see where you are going to land before jumping.  It is because of this that youths have engaged themselves in activities that have backfired on them.

Young people have a moral obligation to introspect themselves, they need to ask themselves questions like what can we offer to our country? Are we ready to take responsibility for our actions? Why is there always a tendency to blame the status quo for our shortcomings? For instance are we too lazy even to register as voters and to physically vote? The youth, as young and energetic people, really have the duty to strengthen democracy, particularly as democracy is something which grows from one level to the next.

Let us be a sector that cannot be ignored by constructively participating in any decision-making process. Let us create a situation whereby our leaders would have trust in us – by us showing our ability to do the right things at the right time. It is time that we become engineers of our destiny, it becomes difficult to speak of our role when we fail to take charge of our destiny.  Let us work hard, and ensure that our leaders have confidence in us and then finally our town/region/country will become what it ought to be through us.