For 20 years, every African National Congress government has sat on the proposal of a majority of the commission headed by Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert that South Africa needs electoral reform in which MPs and provincial councillors are under the control of us, the voters, and not party headquarters.
Only we, the citizens of South Africa — and not politicians — can rescue and renew the country. We need a reform of the Electoral Act so that the majority of MPs are directly elected and can be removed by the citizens of South Africa.
It is shameful that nearly 30 years after the end of apartheid, black people should still be cut off from the power to choose their own representatives, and remain powerless. We demand an end to this electoral apartheid, in which all power over MPs is held by party headquarters.
After the curtain closed on the 55th ANC national elective conference at Nasrec on 20 December, it is important to acknowledge that the new ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) is incapable of cleaning up Parliament, and consequently cleansing the South African state and government of corruption and mismanagement.
Party bosses must not be allowed to continue to appoint their stooges as MPs. It’s a very destructive political racket.
ANC leaders linked to corruption
The Zondo Commission of Inquiry report has revealed that 97 ANC leaders have been implicated in corruption related to State Capture, with links to the Gupta family and Bosasa run by the Watson family.
There is Malusi Gigaba, the former minister of public enterprises, who administered the decline and destruction of Eskom, Transnet and Prasa under his watch. Gigaba is among those listed in the Zondo Commission report, yet he features in the top 20 list of the newly elected NEC. He will be an ANC member of Parliament according to the current Electoral Act, under which party bosses like him decide who becomes an MP — without a word from us, the citizens.
Gigaba’s estranged wife, Noma Mngoma, confirmed that the Guptas renovated Gigaba’s father’s house and settled his sister’s R800,000 debts. Such NEC members cannot be trusted with the resources of the state, yet we the people are powerless to remove them.
This is not what the struggle against apartheid was for. There is no democracy here.
Gwede Mantashe, the national chairperson and the third-most senior person in the ANC, is taking the Zondo report on review to try to expunge the section which states that Bosasa provided him with cameras and security fence as part of the security upgrade at his home in the East Rand. Such leaders cannot be trusted to protect the resources of the South African people.
Nomvula Mokonyane, the newly elected first deputy secretary-general of the ANC, had her 40th birthday party paid for by Bosasa. How can she be trusted with ANC resources?
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These three are among the leaders recently elected by the delegates at the Nasrec 2022 conference. This means that the branch delegates have not read the Zondo commission report, or that they read the report but chose not to believe its conclusions. Or is it that the delegates just don’t care?
It reveals that the ANC cannot cleanse itself
This is the NEC that will continue to deploy its stooges in Parliament and as government ministers as well as members of the boards of state-owned enterprises. To expect them to clean the state is a pipe dream.
Only we the people can sort out this mess. For far too long we as citizens of South Africa have accepted being powerless slaves of a party bureaucracy, over which we have no control.
Only democratic control of MPs can reform South Africa from a gangster state into one that serves its people.
The solution to South Africa’s problems lies in the adoption and implementation of the Van Zyl Slabbert Commission’s majority recommendations, in which 75% (300) members of Parliament will be directly elected by us, the citizens. The citizens will elect the best from the candidates nominated by political parties and independent candidates.
It will be the responsibility of the political parties to put forward ethical candidates for general elections. The ethical standards will be set and upheld by the people of South Africa, not by political parties over which we have no control.
The people of South Africa must now take responsibility for their destiny and elect their own members of Parliament on the basis of one person, one vote of equal value. The present 100% proportional representation — also known as a closed list system — has been a disaster for the country and must be discarded.
The phrase “closed list” is the only official description of South Africa’s political system that is true, as the list of appointees who are parachuted into Parliament is closed to us, the people. This is not democracy, which means “power of the people”. Instead, the closed list cuts us off from any power of control over MPs and leaves us helpless while they manage our affairs.
It is our own fault, as voters, that we have accepted being powerless for so long. We need to awaken and come together to demand that the power of choice over MPs who decide our affairs is transferred into our hands, instead of Luthuli House and other party headquarters.
“No more apartheid between MPs and the people!” needs to be our slogan.
We have accepted being powerless for far too long. Now is the time to resume the struggle for a further end to apartheid, as in the days of the Mass Democratic Movement.
The current proposal of the Ministerial Advisory Committee and a parliamentary committee that only 50% of MPs (200) be directly chosen by name by us as citizens in a general election is a slap in the face.
We must demand the right to directly elect the majority of MPs, otherwise, power will remain with party headquarters through their slavish and subservient appointees. We as citizens pay the salaries of all members of Parliament through our taxes.
We, the citizens, as employers of all elected politicians, must have the first right to choose our representatives, ahead of any political parties.
Let the struggle begin now to increase and expand South Africa’s democratic heritage. DM