'Gen Zs', a generation born between 1995 and 2012, are known for their radical approach to matters, a group that speaks truth to power and in the 2024 Botswana polls, they took centre stage, rallying the nation through a series of online campaigns. Polling station after polling station one could see young people standing in long queues to exercise their constitutionally enshrined right to vote. First-time voters, as they are called, took to social media to demonstrate their political activity by sharing pictures of their national identity and registration cards, rallying fellow online voters to go to the polls and vote. Botswana has experienced a fair amount of youth participation in politics, mainly through student strikes and non-violent protests against certain policy decisions.
This time around, the youth caucused online and chose a government that would rule Botswana for the next five years. Top of the Gen Z voter consideration list was economic policy, mainly focused on employment creation, which has been a scourge for the many young Batswana of this country. Across various social media platforms, one could get the sense that unemployment was the anchor bone of contention influencing voter behaviour. Data from Statistics Botswana recently showed that from a total of around one million Batswana who are eligible and actively seeking employment, almost a quarter of them cannot find footing in the local labour market, which is bloated and has no room for new entrants. The figures are part of a larger trend, which depicts a decades-old sting that has been biting away the success story of Botswana’s diamond-dependent economy.
