Why should you vote?

Life in South Africa poses many challenges, and we all have different ideas about how to make our country a better place in which to live. In any democracy, the power and right to govern should therefore ultimately lie with the people.

But because we cannot all be politicians; we delegate this representative power to our political leaders. To do this, we vote.

When we vote in elections, we choose who we think should represent us and our interests in government. By voting for them we give permission or a ‘mandate’ to politicians to take decisions on our behalf. That’s what we call a representative democracy.

All our democratic representatives are expected to respect the country’s Constitution and represent voters’ interests when governing the country.

It is important to understand that when we vote, we don’t just choose a political party or certain politicians, but we influence the future of our country.