Popular among young people, South Africa’s social media influencers have started taking on a new role ahead of this week’s general election: political mobilizers.
Given that 42% of voters are under 40, the younger generation may have a significant influence on the results on Wednesday.
A popular TikTok maker with over 350,000 followers, Karabo “Kay” Mahapa, occasionally strays from his typical material to encourage people to cast ballots. His videos usually feature humor about relationships and power outages.
The messages are aimed at the younger voters, who, according to a recent survey, have low expectations for the future of the nation.
The constant query, “Who are we voting for?” that appears beneath Mahapa’s election-themed movies captures the ambiguity of a generation.
