Johannesburg - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has appealed to the ANC to “seriously consider” amending the constitution to change the electoral system from proportional representation to a constituency-based system.
She said an electoral reform would allow citizens to hold their political leaders accountable, in the face of increasing unhappiness over service delivery, poverty and unemployment.
These problems have often been blamed for the outbreak of xenophobic violence.
“Our problem, of course, will always be this proportional representation,” Madikizela-Mandela said this week in an interview.
“You, young people in the future will have to honestly, seriously review our election system and find out whether we shouldn’t in future opt for a constitution that says people can be elected for who they are and their work is known and a constituency-based electoral system. Unless we do that, especially in the current political situation of South Africa, I don’t see any remedy,” she said.
Under the proportional representation system, political parties present lists of their respective candidates, and people cast votes for the party of their choice.
Under the constituency-based system, the country is divided into voting areas called constituencies and each political party chooses one candidate to represent it in each constituency. The latter system is used in countries such as the US and Britain.
Madikizela-Mandela decried what she described as the egotism among ANC leaders, who she said were concerned only with the pursuit of power and self-enrichment.
“Today all we are concentrating on is who will succeed whom, who will be the next president. Every corner you turn to, it’s about when the president (Jacob Zuma) steps down and who is going to take over,” she said.
Trying to convince the ANC to switch to a constituency-based electoral system had proved difficult for Madikizela-Mandela.
“If you try to advocate for that, you are called anti-revolutionary or (accused of) trying to disorganise the organisation,” she said, lamenting how the ANC had been tearing itself apart since the acrimonious Polokwane elective conference in 2007.
“If you remember prior to Polokwane, I warned our leadership. I went to see both Thabo Mbeki (then the president) and Jacob Zuma at the time (and told them) it was very dangerous to compete with each other. I said it would lead to the disintegration of the ANC. I said whoever won was going to get rid of all those who were in the cabinet of the other.
“I said I saw you were going to fragment the ANC and it was going to result in camps, and it’s exactly what’s happening today. It started then. The ANC is tearing itself apart.
“It’s really a tragedy. Right now, we are sliding down even in credit worthiness. We were branded the third from the bottom of the countries’ credit worthiness. Who is going to invest in a country that is rated third from the bottom?”
Asked if the ANC would consider Madikizela-Mandela’s call to switch to a constituency-based electoral system, ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said: “We are a democratic country and, as a citizen, she has the right to express her views.”
On the factionalism and careerism said to be hampering service delivery, Kodwa said: “Mama Winnie is a member of the ANC and she has the right to make an assessment of the organisation. Of course, we can’t deny some of the issues.”
The Star