Cape Town - The gravy train that is the provincial legislature will get a whole lot of new passengers if a proposal by the governing DA and some other parties to increase the number of seats in the legislature goes through.
The DA in the Western Cape has called for an increase in the number of seats in the provincial legislature, stating that it should reflect the growing size of the province's population.
The party has proposed a 24% to 43% increase in the number of seats. Grounds used for the proposal are that the population size of the province has increased since 1994, from about 3.9 million to more than 6 million today, which according to the party should reflect in the number of seats.
DA provincial leader Bonginkosi Madikizela said: “In terms of our provincial constitution, 100000 people make up one seat. We have almost 6.2 million people in the Western Cape which should equate to 62 seats and yet we have only 42 seats.”
He added: “The work of MPs is to enhance public participation and make sure people are part of the government decisions that affect them. But if parliamentarians are not effective on this because of capacity it deprives members of the public who elected us to participate effectively in the decision-making.”
ANC leader of opposition in legislature Cameron Dugmore said the ANC was not opposed to the idea and would discuss the matter and consult with its national leadership before coming to a final decision.
“In the last administration, the DA raised this matter and it is now raising it again, while it is true that the population in the province has grown since the initial decision about 42 seats was made, placing greater pressure on MPLs. The current financial environment facing our country needs to be considered,” said Dugmore.
Provincial chairperson of the EFF and party leader in the legislature Melikhaya Xego said that the red berets were in full support of the increase as it has always been in the interest of the province.
“If you look in terms of demographics, it has increased. It has been a tug-of-war between the national and provincial government in terms of recognising the Western Cape. It is for the benefit of the province in terms of service delivery.”
The Good Party has severely criticised the proposal and said it would not be supporting a proposal to increase government expenditure by creating more positions for politicians.
“It is ludicrous to even consider this proposal to increase the budget for politicians when 6000 children do not have schools or teachers and hundreds of thousands still await housing,” said the party’s Brett Herron.
He said that the province could not afford to add more politicians on to the payroll and instead have called for an increase in the use of technology to meet their demands.
“It frustrates me that government officials tell me that in 2020 there are still provincial politicians who do not use email or electronic calendars,” added Herron.
Political analyst and author Dr Ralph Mathekga said: “In principle, I don't think it's a bad thing but people should also look at what are other priorities before you can do that.
"There could be many other priorities that the legislature might have to achieve instead of increasing its size.”
He added there needs to be certainty that an increase in the size of the legislature would indeed bring about service delivery. “It’s not totally out of line to make this call. Such an alignment might be necessary if it is demonstrated that the population is growing and therefore there is a need to increase the number of representatives with the ultimate goal of increasing service delivery.”
But political analyst at the Institute for Global Dialogue Sanusha Naidu said there was no need to revise seat allocations. “It seems the DA has resigned itself to cement and consolidate its political control in the Western Cape.”
“It wants to deepen its political control and dictates with the intent to use the Western Cape as a political centre for itself.”
@TheCapeArgus