On 7 May this year, the so-called ‘Born Frees’ will for the first time be able to exercise their right to vote in a South African national election. This week, Up4debate asks: how are young people responding to this opportunity?
On 7 May this year, the so-called ‘Born Frees’ will for the first time be able to exercise their right to vote in a South African national election. This week, Up4debate asks: how are young people responding to this opportunity?
To answer this question, we invited three people to our studio who have taken up positions of leadership in the student community at Rhodes University: Binwe Adebayo, former editor of the Oppidian Press; Alan Magubane, former SRC president and Vuyolwethu Toli, the current branch secretary of SASCO at Rhodes.
Binwe Adebayo: "This ‘born-frees’ thing gives us a pat on the back as South Africans that I don’t think we deserve, because I think there are people who have been born in the last 5 seconds who are incredibly unfree."
Allan Magubane: "The inequalities in the country still stare ‘born-frees’ in the face. They’ve just been allowed to move around within those inequalities … I think we need to have very big conversations about … what is education ploughing into the minds of the ‘born-free’? What is the media ploughing into the minds of the ‘born-free’?"
Vuyo Toli: "I have a problem with this thing that the vision for the future lies in the hands of the youth. The challenges are today."
