Political leaders making mark in Durban call on SA youth to do the same

DURBAN - Political leaders who are making their mark in Durban on Wednesday are calling on others, especially the country’s young people, to do the same.

This, with their focus still firmly fixed on that all-important youth vote.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen cast his ballot at Northwood High School in Durban North, while KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube made her mark at Nkulisabantu Primary School in KwaMashu.

Steenhuisen said he’s happy with what he had seen so far and that while young people may not be interested in politics, he believes they’re starting to realise it’s interested in them.

“It’s eating up their NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] money, it’s destroying the ability to start up a small business and the entrepreneurial effort, [and] it is holding them back from being able to find work in an economy that is not growing. If you don’t fix the politics, you can’t fix any of those things.”

Dube-Ncube also said she was pleased to see young people in the lines, but that she wants to see more of them.

“We need to call more young people to come out and vote because honestly this country and this land, we are right now in the governing position, but it’s on behalf of those young people, they must take this country and move it forward.”

It’s, of course, still relatively early in the day, though, and it won’t be exactly known how many young people actually come out to vote on Wednesday until much later on.