Central News Issue 007 | Top Story : “ANC keeps Ramaphosa and kicks Magashule“

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06 Classifieds | 02 JUNE 2023cnclassifieds
02 JUNE 2023 |Opinion 07opinionby Mashupye Herbert MaserumuleProfessor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of TechnologySouth Africa has changed its electoral law, buta much more serious overhaul is neededSouth African president Cyril Ramaphosarecently signed into law a change to thecountry’s electoral act to allow individualsto contest national and provincial electionsindependently of political parties.The change follows a June 2020constitutional court judgment that theElectoral Act was unconstitutionalbecause it didn’t allow independentcandidates.But in my view the change corrects onewrong by creating another, especiallyconcerning the principle of proportionality.For instance, it does not matter how manyvotes independent candidates get. Oncethey have reached the electoral thresholdto secure a seat in the legislature, anyextra votes would not count. For politicalparties, extra votes count towards securinganother seat. (A trend that has emergedover the years has been that a party needsat least 40,000 to 45,000 votes to secure aseat in the national assembly.)Thus various civil society formations haveheaded to court to challenge the inherentinjustice in the changed law. The existingelectoral system is, by design since 1994,inherently biased towards a party system.Based on my work on electoral democracyin South Africa, and on the ElectoralCommission of South Africa (chapter 4),I think the legislated changes and muchof the discussion about independentcandidates miss the point. What’s neededis to completely overhaul the electoralsystem, lest it continues to churn outminute parties, resulting in intractablecoalition politics. This is already inevidence through governance impasses inthe country’s metropolises.The constitutional court’s decision showsthat electoral democracy is possiblewithout parties.The challenge is to design an electoralsystem that makes this possible. The courtcannot prescribe this. It is a function thatbelongs to parliament.Barking up the wrong treeIn much of the debate about electoralreform, the way local governmentrepresentatives are elected is touted as asolution. But it is no better. Despite havingan element of a constituency approach,which many supporters of electoralreforms want for provincial and nationalpolls, is also driven by a party system.That it is not also up for reform createslopsidedness. This must be corrected, orSouth Africa could make the same mistakeit made during the negotiations to endapartheid in the early 1990s. The transitionfrom the apartheid-era local governmentsystem was handled separately from thenational and provincial spheres. This iswhy the country has different systems ofgovernment at the local, provincial andnational levels. And often this spawnsincoherence in the country’s system ofgovernance.The fundamental problem is the country’sproportional representation system. It isthe reason coalition politics have becomemessy.Local government has been unstable sinceafter the August 2016 local governmentelections saw the governing ANC losemajor cities, heralding the era of coaltion governments across the country.The unstable coalitions have had direconsequences for governance and servicedelivery. The fear is that this will berepeated after the 2024 national elections.Because of the loss of electoral supportover the years for the governing AfricanNational Congress, the poll is expectedto result in the first national coalitiongovernment since democracy in 1994.This could also happen in the provinces.The proportional representation systemIn a proportional representation system,the allocation of seats in the legislatures forall three spheres of government is basedon the electoral performance of parties. Awinning party needs more than 50% of thevotes to constitute a government.Local government uses a ward systemalong with proportional representation.The total number of seats is halved, to befilled based on the electoral performanceof the parties and candidates who get themost votes in their community.Compared to proportional representation,a ward system is a constituency electoralapproach, based on the first-past-the-postprinciple. A candidate with the highestvotes in a ward gets a seat in the municipalcouncil as the community’s duly electedrepresentative.Many hail the mixed local governmentsystem as balancing party-list proportionalrepresentation with a constituencyapproach. They say it has lessons forthe national and provincial spheres ofgovernment. But this is only partiallyaccurate.A ward system also allows candidatesto contest elections as representatives ofparties. This oddity does not end here. Avote for a ward candidate who representsa party adds to proportional voting of theirparty in allocating seats in the council. Award system reinforces the party system.Its constituency disposition is a farce.Why proportional representationSouth Africa’s proportional representationcame from noble intentions during themultiparty negotiation in the 1990s toend apartheid. It evolved as part of thepolitical concessions to facilitate thetransition “from racial authoritarianismto multiparty democracy” (p.440-450).This included enabling even the smallestparties a presence in parliament.It has long outlived its contextualrelevance. Its negative extremes aboundin local government. The proliferationof smaller parties muddies the operatingsystem of the multiparty democracy.This has thrown governance into turmoil,as shown in the metropolises with theirinternecine coalition politics. It is comingapart at the seams, to the detriment ofservice delivery.South Africa’s democracy is at a tippingpoint, and state capacity has beenweakening.What needs to be done?Government has the responsibility todesign a better electoral system. Theobjective should be to return power frompolitical elites to the people. The existingsystem has spawned contestation amongparties about sharing the spoils of statepower rather than using this for the publicgood.Different electoral systems exist acrossthe globe. There is no perfect system forSouth Africa to choose. Each electoralsystem is a function of its politicalcontext, and when this changes, it alsoought to change.The distribution of seats for independentcandidates must be thrashed out to ensureequity relative to political parties. Whentheir electoral performance gives themmore than a seat, they should be allowedto co-opt like-minded people to occupythem.The possibility for ward councillorsto contest elections as representativesof parties should be disallowed. Theyshould only stand as direct communityrepresentatives. An overarchingrequirement for all who want to contestelections should be allegiance to the publicinterest, not party or personal interests.
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Central News Issue 007 | Top Story : “ANC keeps Ramaphosa and kicks Magashule“

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