Electoral reform will solve ANC’S accountability crisis

SOUTH Africa has reached a dangerous impasse because of unaccountability of politicians to voters. This unaccountability is the root cause of systemic corruption and dysfunction in the country.

As an ANC member and former commander in uMkhonto weSizwe in exile, I believe we need to change the electoral law towards a constituency-based system, on the basis of large multi-member constituencies.

The current system of proportional representation (PR) was good for transition from apartheid to the new nonracial, non-sexist democracy, mainly because under apartheid, the Group Areas Act separated the population according to racial and tribal lines.

However, since the first democratic elections in 1994, the PR system has led to a deterioration of services, rampant corruption and lack of individual accountability of politicians.

The first principle in the Freedom Charter, “The people shall govern”, is replaced by a political aristocracy that deploys according to cliques and pals.

There is no merit system that informs the deployment policy – hence the lack of service delivery and disaffection with the ANC.

MPs, MPLs, mayors and half the councillors are foisted on to the people on the ground and ANC branch members by Luthuli House. These individuals may be corrupt, inept, completely incompetent, and spend most of their time thinking about the next tender and how much wealth they can amass, rather than service to the population.

There is no individual accountability of politicians at national and provincial levto els, and in half of the municipal seats. Deployees are imposed from above. ANC branches have no power to remove them.

There is no effective link between MPs and the local party branch.

The population is helpless and cannot get rid of corrupt, greedy and incompetent officials.

It is clear the present PR system cannot ensure individual accountability of politicians.

We need to change to a constituencybased electoral system, where party branches will have sole power to nominate and withdraw candidates for election as members of parliament in their constituencies. Party branches and the local population need to be able to monitor the performance of all politicians and de-select them as candidates before the next elections when necessary.

This is the only way of restoring accountability of individual politicians.

The present system has failed dismally, as the recent auditors’ report has shown.

There is no confidence or trust in the performance monitoring department.

There is no will and no mechanism to make ANC MPs, mayors and councillors accountable for their actions. Non-performing politicians are sometimes even rewarded with appointments to ambassadorial posts in foreign countries.

The ANC and the people now need a renewed struggle for democratic advance, so the promise “The people shall govern” can be made real.

The advantages of a constituencybased system are:

Candidates for election as MPs stand locally for their constituents. MPs are accountable first of all to their constituents before being accountable to the national office;

Smaller parties are able to secure MPs through multi-member constituencies. For example, if there were seven MPs for Soweto, one might be elected for COPE, and if there were, say, eight members for Johannesburg, one or two might be elected for the DA. The reverse might operate in Cape Town;

Demography, on the basis of geographical area and population density, would determine the boundaries of multimember constituencies;

Party branches would have power to de-select incompetent and corrupt politicians before each election;

The more a party looks after the interests of the people in the multi-member constituency, the more MPs are likely to get elected for that party in that constituency at the next election. There is a motive for MPs to serve the local people and to listen to their demands.

The only disadvantage is the votes for losing candidates are discarded.

By contrast, electoral reform, through multi-member constituencies, is able to secure representativity and accountability, and would advance democracy in the ANC and within the country.

The key issue is democratic control of politicians by local electors. At present there is only undemocratic control of politicians by party headquarters.

A constituency-based system will restore power to the people as envisaged in the Freedom Charter and make politicians individually accountable for their actions.

As a proposed solution to the crisis of accountability in South Africa, this is fully within the historic tradition of the ANC, as set out by the founding fathers in 1912 and in the Freedom Charter.

It sets out a way in which the ANC can renew itself in a struggle for self-cleansing and democratic advance.

It provides an analysis of the main cause of corruption and unaccountability in the political system inherited from the 1993 interim constitution and the 1996 constitution, and is an adaptation of the recommendations of the Electoral Task Team Report of 2003 (the Van Zyl Slabbert Commission), as appointed by the National Assembly.

It can be implemented by mobilising the civil society movement. Omry Makgoale is a mechanical engineer and a member of the ANC. These are his personal views