SA's Political 'Youth' Leagues...

The age group of members of the ANC Youth League is 14-35! The IFP’s age bracket is 18-40! The DA has an age group of 18-30 which is more reasonable, but still a bit off, I think. Insofar as other political parties go, I’m unsure of their age requirements for their ‘youth’, but I think the three aforementioned parties suit my needs for now.

Surely by definition ‘middle’ means halfway? At present the average life expectancy of South Africans is approximately 60 years of age. Therefore, middle-age would be approximately 30 years of age. Yet these ‘middle-aged’ individuals are running the “youth” leagues in this country... Some of them will even die of illnesses related to ‘old age’ before they qualify to join the main political organisation!

What really bothers me is that members of any ‘youth’ league are allowed to be so old that they could have been the parent(s) of the youngest members of the ‘youth’ league? E.g. a 35-year-old could quite easily be the parent of a fourteen-year-old!!!

I would think that 18-28 is the desirable age grouping for any ‘youth’ league in this country, or anywhere for that matter. This age grouping would target young adults as opposed to individuals ranging from puberty to middle-age!!

In South Africa one only becomes eligible to vote at age eighteen, so the ANC with its 14 lower age limit is catching its members at a very vulnerable age.

Ask yourself: What does a 35-year-old have in common with a) youth and b) a fourteen-year-old? Nothing, that’s what! I would think there are some very unhealthy relationships in existence in some of these organisations.

I would like to ask the supporters of all the many registered political parties in South Africa to call upon their organisations to rethink their ‘youth’ league age groupings to more accurately reflect the voting ‘youth’ of the country as opposed to middle-aged voters.

What do you think?


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