Are political youth formations the children's tables of party politics? People who have been to a birthday party that has a mix of children and adults in attendance understand the concept of a children's table. This is the table reserved specifically for children.
Like the adult tables in the room, the children's table is often decorated in the same colours and has plates, cutlery, and food similar to but of lesser value than the adult tables. At the children's table, the children feel as important as the adults in the room and are told that being at their own table means that they are special guests given special accommodations.
The truth is that much like the role of political youth formations, children's tables are a ruse. They provide a false sense that being given their own space among peers is for their benefit. It is sold as empowering rather than a way to keep the children distracted and out of the way while the adults conduct the business of the real party.
SA's political parties have since the formations of the ANC Youth League in 1944 started down a path of having formations of the party that are exclusively for youth. It's commonplace that youth formations are thought of as a place where the young can assert themselves and organise for "youth issues".
But in a democratic context where youth is determined as ending at 35 and people under the age of 36 account for over 65% of South Africans and where the majority of the country's working age population are between 15-30 years old, surely all issues affect youth.
Young people do not only account for a sizable proportion of the population, they find themselves disproportionately affected by economic burdens and social ills. All SA issues are youth issues. We need a political culture that reflects the centrality of young people if we are to successfully change our collective trajectory.
Young people are expected to be workers and employers. To be responsible for the wellbeing of elders and children. To produce new ideas to solve problems. Yet, when it comes to party politics the same young people are in the words of Dr. Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, an EFF deployed member of parliament, in "permanent juniority". He argues that young people are cast as inherently problematic, incapable and need to be led by others.
The idea that young people in politics need to be in youth formations has increasingly become a way to keep young people outside the main frame of political power and decision-making. It has become a form a political gate-keeping that tokenises youth participation, giving youth a veneer of legitimacy while simultaneously limiting the power young people can exercise to a single-issue lobby group within parties.
In Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation, Hart posits that most political participation by young people is in the forms of manipulation, tokenism and as decoration. In SA politics we have seen young people used as voting fodder, to fill stadiums and swell the crowds during protests. Youth are not routinely engaged on their ideas or deferred to for leadership.
Hart further makes the point that having spaces for youth participation that are exclusively for youth is not the best or highest form of youth participation but urges us to strive towards a politics where young people take roles as co-leaders with older people and are seen as equal stakeholders in the exercise of power.
On June 16, a day South Africans commemorate Youth Day in honour of the youth of 1976 who bravely entered the fight for democracy and freedom, our society has the opportunity to reflect on the value of and need for more youth participation in politics.
In a democracy, if representation matters, in a youthful society we must prioritise the views, experiences and leadership of young people. Youth make up more than half of the voting population but are only on the margins of political representation and leadership.
It is incumbent on young people to make their participation and representation in politics a non-negotiable demand if political parties want to be regarded as legitimate and worthy of youth support. Youth must require more than a seat at a children’s table. Political parties must be challenged to mainstream youth participation and youth leadership.
As we invoke the memories of many young people who led and energised the struggle to realise a democratic SA, may we collectively determine to foster more meaningful youth participation, moving youth from the margins of politics to the centres of power.
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