Nearly half of South Africa's new voters are under 29 as youth drive 2026 registration surge

South Africa's youth have emerged as a driving force behind the country's growing voters' roll, with citizens under the age of 29 accounting for nearly half of all new voter registrations during the 2026 registration campaign.

Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, Electoral Commission (IEC) Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo revealed that 46% of the 291,806 first-time voter registrations recorded during the final registration weekend came from young people.

Overall, the weekend of August 1 and 2 saw approximately 1.7 million South Africans interact with the Electoral Commission by either visiting one of the country's 23,699 voting stations or using the online voter registration portal.

Of the 1.7 million transactions recorded, 291,806 were first-time voter registrations, while 1,502,245 already registered voters used the opportunity to inspect or update their registration details.

Mamabolo said ensuring voters are registered in the correct voting district remains a key priority ahead of the Local Government Elections.

Young people aged between 16 and 29 accounted for 485,757 of the total registration transactions, representing 26% of all voter activity over the weekend.

KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest youth participation with 137,046 registrations and updates by young people, followed by the Eastern Cape with 79,417 and Gauteng with 78,405.

KwaZulu-Natal also led overall registration activity with 427,592 transactions, ahead of Gauteng's 314,856 and the Eastern Cape's 313,797.

Traditional voting stations remained the preferred method of registration, accounting for 1,555,318 transactions over the two-day campaign.

KwaZulu-Natal again topped station-based registrations with 386,258 transactions, followed by the Eastern Cape with 295,655 and Gauteng with 228,364.

Meanwhile, the IEC's online voter registration portal processed 238,733 transactions. Gauteng recorded the highest online usage with 86,492 registrations and updates, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 41,334 and the Western Cape with 33,783.

Mamabolo said the trend reflected the higher concentration of urban populations in those provinces.

Women continued to outnumber men in voter registration activity. Female voters accounted for 1,005,790 transactions, or 56% of the total, while men made up 788,261 transactions, representing 44%.

Among the newly registered voters, women accounted for half of all first-time registrations.

The IEC said the June and August registration weekends together generated 4,666,547 interactions with voters, significantly higher than the 1.7 million transactions recorded during the single registration weekend held before the 2021 Local Government Elections, when the election timetable was shortened due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Combined, the two registration weekends added 754,332 new voters to South Africa's voters' roll, providing a significant boost ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections.