Pretoria – Generations star Patrick Shai, Rhythm City’s Mpho Molepo, Muvhango’s Nomsa Buthelezi and actress Maggie Williams will on Thursday kick off road shows at high schools and FET colleges around the province to encourage the youth to vote.
Zone 14 stars Kere Nyao and Thulani Didi will also grace the road shows as well as Nthati Mosesh who stars in Scandal.
The celebrities, in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, will visit two high schools and one FET college per day to encourage the youth to cast their vote.
South Africans will head to the polls on 7 May.
Under the theme, ‘20Years of Freedom and Democracy: Telling our good story with celebrities’, the road shows will start tomorrow and will continue till 6 May, with the aim of reflecting on the past 20 years by highlighting the achievements of the province.
“This year’s general elections are of significance because youth born in the year of democracy in 1994 will have an opportunity to vote for the first time.
“As a department responsible for promoting democracy and civic duty citizenry, we hope working with these celebrated individuals will help us connect, especially with the youth.
“We want them to go and vote but before that, to understand the need and importance of voting. It is easy for them to ignore this because they were not there before 1994," MEC Lebogang Maile said on Wednesday.
2014 marks the 20th anniversary of freedom and democracy, where South Africa’s majority voted for the first time for a democratically elected government, which was led by the late Nelson Mandela.
“We hope this partnership with celebrities, as part of their social responsibility initiative, will assist in enhancing the interest of the communities to go and vote,” added MEC Maile. - SAnews.gov.za
