Registering to vote is foreign to their thinking. Their minds are addictively glued to pornography, TikToking, Instagram slay culture, drugs, sex, barbecuing, umjolo (relationships), dating sites, Facebook reels and memes. They hunger and thirst for likes, and followers more than they do for knowledge, wisdom, and skills.
They blindly follow toxic socialites, fake prophets, shoddy motivational speakers and lacklustre mbingaz (rich or wealthy persons) whose social media marketing skills hoodwink them into unsustainable spending patterns and peer pressure. They hardly read a newspaper or watch the news. Some of them do not even know what the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is.
The educated ones are the most disappointing. Despite having fancy Stem degrees, they lack sound judgment and common sense. All they dream of is getting a passport to migrate to South Africa where they are overworked and underpaid by white monopoly capitalists, if not, “dudulad” by xenophobic attacks.
Those in universities and colleges have murdered and buried the culture of innovation and research. They are obsessed with Fifa video games, googling pornography, and masturbating in their dorms. Those lucky to get jobs in the country, the middle-class ‘‘shungu’’ type, have become more politically disengaged turning their focus on individual welfare and economic survival in the deteriorating economy.
These factors do not, however, distract the rural folk (the ruling party’s trump card), the same way they do to urbanites, the (purported constituency of the opposition).
67% of the population in Zimbabwe lives in rural areas, and the ruling party has capitalised on this demographic advantage. As Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni puts it, “while the ruling party uses food and land distribution to win votes (mostly in rural areas), on the other hand, the opposition banks on popular anger and disillusionment rather than on its mobilisation prowess”.
We, therefore, need to liberate our young people from this captivity and get them to seek yee first registering to vote and casting a ballot — all the other things shall surely be added unto them and us all.
By Anotida Chikumbu for Daily Maverick
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