Youth  registration     The  failure  of  youth  in  particular  to  register  was  noted  by  Bulawayo  civics,  and  this  is  consistent   with  the  more  general  alienation  of  youth  in  the  nation  and  in  the  Matabeleland  region.  There  are   thousands  of  young  people  that  now  live  with  divided  national  loyalties,  taking  part  in  what  has   been  called  ‘circular  migration’.92  In  a  never  ending  quest  for  relevance  and  work,  young  people   cross  the  border  from  the  Matabeleland  provinces,  spending  some  months  in  South  Africa  looking   for  work,  then  returning  to  their  rural  home,  or  to  Bulawayo,  or  both  alternately,  looking  for  work   or  to  spend  time  with  family.  Then  the  cycle  repeats.  Some  have  migrated  almost  permanently,   with  regular  work  in  South  Africa.  Many  of  these  Zimbabweans  are  now  rootless,  and  feel  that   people  in  Zimbabwe,  including  the  government,  do  not  care  about  them,  noting  that  there  are   almost  no  work  or  training  opportunities.  They  do  not  feel  very  ‘Zimbabwean’.  Some  have  allegedly   acquired  South  African  IDs,  either  legitimately  through  marriage,  or  through  previously  emigrated   family  connections.93  There  are  youth  now  in  their  twenties  who  have  lived  almost  their  entire  lives   in  the  current  political  crisis,  which  began  in  the  late  1990s.       This  large  group  of  disaffected  youngsters  is  not  likely  to  prioritise  registering  to  vote:  many  have   been  outside  of  Zimbabwe  during  the  BVR  process,  or  anticipate  not  being  in  the  country  whenever   an  election  takes  place  –  why  register  when  you  may  not  be  present  to  vote  anyway?    How  do  you   persuade  someone  to  sign  an  affidavit  for  you  proving  where  you  reside,  when  you  don’t  really   reside  anywhere  much,  particularly  if  you  need  the  signature  of  a  rural  headman?  It  is  very  hard  to   quantify  how  many  thousands  of  Zimbabweans  might  fall  into  this  category,  as  documented  and   undocumented  figures  for  Zimbabweans  in  South  Africa  are  notoriously  difficult  to  ascertain.   However,  they  could  be  estimated  to  be  considerably  more  than  one  million,  with  many  of  these   from  Matabeleland,  in  particular  Matabeleland  South,  which  borders  South  Africa.94       To  the  extent  that  youth  have  registered,  it  will  be  interesting  to  track  how  they  vote  in  2018:  it  is   ZANU  PF  rather  than  the  opposition  that  have  successfully  courted  a  certain  youth  cadre,  with   offerings  of  peri-­‐urban  stands  as  a  form  of  patronage  in  the  context  of  youth  who  have  very  few   opportunities.       It  was  also  clear  during  casual  conversations  by  the  authors  with  Zimbabweans  living  in  South   Africa,  that  they  were  not  aware  that  the  BVR  exercise  was  compulsory  for  all  citizens:  they  were   under  the  impression  that  because  they  had  registered  and  voted  before,  they  could  return  home   and  vote  in  any  future  election,  and  that  BVR  was  only  for  those  previously  unregistered.  With  the   government  of  Zimbabwe’s  antipathy  to  including  the  Diaspora  vote,  there  was  no  attempt  to   publicise  the  BVR  process  across  the  borders.  Nor  did  the  political  opposition  appear  to  be  inclined   to  make  this  a  priority.                                                                                                                   92  Potts,  Deborah:  Circular  Migration  in  Zimbabwe  and  Contemporary  Sub-­‐Saharan  Africa.  Boyden  and   Brewer,  London,  2010.       93  Personal  anecdotes  in  discussions.     94  African  Centre  for  Migration  Studies  in  Johannesburg  has  placed  undocumented  migrants  at  around  1,4   million,  the  majority  being  Zimbabwean.       29