UNEMPLOYED graduates in the Free State have taken a bold decision to boycott the 2024 national elections.
The majority of the unemployed graduates never bothered to register to vote with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) over the registration weekend, on 18 and 19 November.
The graduates believe it will be a futile exercise to vote because no political party displayed an implementation strategy on how it would conquer job creation, alleviate poverty and economic emancipation.
According to the leader of the unemployed graduates in Free State, Modene Mbatha (23), the government has abandoned the mining industry, industrialisation and agricultural sector primarily to deprive People and make them to depend on government social grants so they will be used as voting cows.
Mbatha studied Bachelor of Arts in Governance and Political Transformations at University of the Free State.
He said he has been struggling to find a job regardless of having a degree ready hit ground running alongside other graduates.
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"Our government has no plan to make an environment to be conducive for us. Some of the graduates are experiencing depression and have admitted in psychiatric medication institutions due to unemployment. They have been abused by the government through fees must fall campaign while others are carrying criminal records," he said
These young people who are also the first voters have ignored the IEC's call for first time voters to register to cast their ballot during next year’s national elections. Mbatha further outlined that democracy has failed graduates and all South Africans a long time ago.
"We are not going to vote for the 2024 elections because we have seen the government failing us. The political parties have been failing us in so many ways with their empty promises. They have been promising us jobs. And there are so many graduates sitting at home doing nothing," he said.
The graduates are planning to establish their own political party.
