The young and the clueless

07 July 2015 - 02:04 By Leonie Wagner

Limpopo has its own time zone, there are 12 colours in the national flag and Robert Mugabe is the leader of South Africa's opposition party. This is according to a YouTube quiz of young people in Cape Town's Long Street. Those interviewed, all in their 20s, were from across South Africa and included a few tourists.Interviewer Devon Saunders asked people the same 10 general knowledge questions.The video, shot at night, shows that it is a bad idea to drink tequila on quiz night, and that most people can't spell "twelfth".Saunders asked seemingly no-brainer questions such as "How many cents are there in a rand?", What's heavier: a ton of iPads or a ton of iPhones?", "How many varieties of banknotes are there in South Africa?", "How many colours are there in the national flag?", "If it's 12am in Cape Town what time is it in Limpopo?", and "Who is the leader of the official opposition party?"The answers were cringe-worthy but hilarious: there were 1000 cents in a rand, a ton of iPads was heavier than a ton of iPhones and there were seven or eight different banknotes. Respondents said there were 12 colours in the flag, Limpopo was four hours ahead of Cape Town and either Jacob Zuma or Mugabe was the leader of the opposition.Does this mean that young people are ignorant and not interested in politics?Definitely not, said the vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen."A lot of young people are very politicised and want to be involved so we must distinguish an interest in politics from a knowledge of politics. For example, some young people still think Robert Sobukwe is a soccer player," he said.Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib said poor general knowledge was a global problem.Saunders, who shot the video - which has been viewed more than 16000 times - said he found some of the answers disappointing but he had set out only to "find the funny".Habib said politicians should ask themselves what they had done to alienate young voters...

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