Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

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DEMOCRACY TODAY
still in use today, it is the ‘black’, ‘coloured’ and ‘indian’ marginalized
or working class group of South Africans. If this economic situation is
coupled with the macro-political situation with regard to representation
discussed above, it is beyond dispute to conclude that most groups in
South Africa remain unfree as a direct result of their lack of meaningful
representation: either they have no agents, trustees, defenders of
their identities/interests or varieties of possible images upon which to
reflect or they have powerless representatives, whose powerlessness is
a consequence of the persistence of domination within extant power
relations or institutional arrangements that do not enable effective
representation.
One of the ruling party’s responses to these problems regarding
meaningful representation has been to try and enhance democratic
participation of the citizenry at local government level. But this is not a
response to the problem since it is based on the premise that the problem
regarding national representative politics arises as a consequence
of lack of citizen participation and is thus best resolvable via greater
participation and deliberation at local level. As I have argued above, the
problem is not about the degree or form of citizen political participation
but about the way in which representation is being enacted in South
Africa. Moreover, even if we were to assume for argument’s sake that the
logic behind these initiatives is a good one, it amounts to nothing more
than window-dressing. This is the case because although citizens are
given some access to deliberation prior to decision-making, it is ward
councillors who ultimately make the decisions behind closed doors
and most have firm party loyalty, not least of all because, in accordance
with the electoral system specified in the constitution, half of the
councillors are instated through proportional representation, whilst
the remaining half are ward constituent representatives. Therefore,
as is the case at national level, councillors are not accountable to their
constituencies but accountable to party leaders. [38]
This condition of little or no meaningful representation is unhealthy
for any state, let alone a new, emerging democracy and nor does it bode
38
Tapscott, ‘The Challenges of Building Participatory Government’, in Thompson (ed),
Participatory Governance: Citizens and the State in South Africa (University of the Western
Cape 2007), p. 87.