Disengagement? Participation in elections | State of Gauteng City Region

The figure below illustrates the turnout rates, i.e. the percentage of registered voters who cast their ballots, for five elections over the last decade. Turnout rates tend to be higher for national and provincial elections than for local elections, but the turnout rate for the 2011 municipal elections was significantly higher than for 2000 and 2006.

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The key risk with high levels of government dissatisfaction is that residents may lose faith in their government entirely, and no longer invest any expectations in it at all.

This concern is different from worries about service delivery protests – here residents are still trying to make themselves heard by government. ‘State disengagement’ is a complete abandonment of hope that government will ever perform, and it is accompanied by serious societal problems: tax and service payment evasion; increased lawlessness and taking the law into one’s own hands; complete refusal to vote or engage in public participation processes; and insulation in communities or groups that seek to regulate themselves beyond the rule of law.