by Lorenzo A Davids
Of the top 10 political parties in Parliament, two parties won under 4% of the vote, and five political parties won less the 1% of the vote. The remaining three political parties won between 10% and 58% of the vote.
Even at its best efforts, the opposition is, in fact, no opposition because their collective numbers do not threaten the ANC majority.
The cost to Parliament and the country of the five political parties who won less than 1% of the vote far outweigh any changes they are able to make. The five parties at the bottom of the top 10 list collectively share 847 614 votes between them, out of a pool of 26 million eligible voters in the country. That is about 3.2% of the total vote that they share. That is, on average, about 169 500 votes per party.
That is what’s wrong with our system. It is pretend-politics. It gives a party and its representatives the illusion of power when our entire voting system is based on a winner-takes-all model. We have relook at our system where the political party that wins 51% of the vote has all the power.
You may say, "but how can that be wrong? Is that not what elections are all about? Isn’t it about one-person-one-vote and majority rule?“
Majority rule is what has weakened Africa. It is what is weakening America and other democracies. Inclusive representation is the future.
Imagine you are part of the political groupings that make up the balance of seats in Parliament where one party has won 51% or more of the vote. Other than constitutional amendments, which require two-thirds of the House to approve it, most submissions will be passed because they need only 51% of the House vote.
We are faced with political parties who sit in Parliament for five years like yapping fox terriers when pretending to scare the Rottweiler. That is why members on both sides of the House fall asleep, because you can only play pretend-politics and exercise pretend-power for so long.
The ANC is secured in its power for five years and can approve most of the policies they seek to do.
Their members are not threatened by losing a vote in the House. The opposition parties are secure in their jobs, and other than occasional firebrand speeches, they retire to their various states of infertility that they will live in for five years. Other than an association with power, they will never have any real power.
We need a different system that will save our towns and villages and rivers and sewerage systems and dams and factories and farms and townships and roads.
We need to have direct representation of constituencies in Parliament. It is clear that the default and dominate culture in Parliament is that you represent your party – not the people. We need to have demarcated constituencies to ensure an inclusive and representative people’s voice in the House.
This is the maturing – and risk – that our electoral system must undertake with urgency to save South Africa. If we do not embrace direct constituency representation, we will continue to see our infrastructure and assets destroyed. Add into this mix the issues around competencies of public servants. No government can govern without a competent workforce.
Cadre deployment and incompetency must be dealt a death blow. We can no longer risk our people's well-being on incompetent public servants who do not have the necessary skills to serve our people and save our dams, rivers and roads.
Now is a time for truth-telling and political bravery. We cannot keep staring at our crumbling national infrastructure and believe that the current workforce – including some incompetent ministers – can reverse this. They cannot. We need an accelerated, skilled and competent workforce.
Change begins when we give people, instead of party political paraphernalia, meaningful representation to fix sewerage systems, build houses and clean rivers.
* Lorenzo A Davids is chief executive of the Community Chest.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Argus
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