ELECTORAL REFORM
growing our position as the country’s opposition parties in Parliament.
Multiparty politics in a fledgling democracy
Often the idea of having a multiplicity of political actors in a new democracy is idealized. There is less concern for what such diverse representation is intended to achieve. In South Africa, multiparty democracy, like democracy itself, is the means to a particular end, not an end unto itself.
The purpose of multiparty democracy in a still divided and heterogeneous society like ours is twofold: first, all South Africans, in their rich diversity, must be given a political voice via their elected representatives in the national Legislature. The South African constitution explicitly requires this.
Secondly, the government of the day must always be accountable to the electorate and removable from office on the basis of its performance. The establishment of a multi- party electoral system alone is not a sufficient condition for achieving both of these objectives. A country may have, for example, a relatively small and highly-fragmented opposition versus a large and hegemonic governing party. Present-day South Africa is one such country. In a different context, electoral competition could mean that political parties emerge from the polls with fairly equal shares of the vote. This could result in an outcome in which no party can command a majority even with the Westminster model’s confidence and supply mechanism. This can sometimes result in deals to co-govern which are predicated on maintaining vested interests rather than responding to the will or the needs of the people.
Both of these scenarios pose risks to the twin imperatives of maintaining diversity of representation and facilitating accountability. Without these two outcomes, the presence of multiparty engagement in the political process can be rendered meaningless.
As South Africa’s democracy matures, opposition parties’ roles
are evolving and will continue to evolve. By the early 2020s, it is likely that the opposition will become the government and the present government will become the opposition. When this happens peacefully at the ballot box, as I believe it will, and when the outcome is accepted by all political players, South Africa will have become a consolidated democracy.
Deficiencies in the electoral system
We believe that there is a problem – in line with the “law of unintended consequences” – which has resulted from our strict party-list system of proportional representation. When our electoral system was adopted in 1994, it was designed to promote a strong and stable party system. Over time, however, robust engagement in Parliament has slowly become ossified, with power increasingly concentrated in the hands of party managers instead of the electorate. The diminished role of Parliament has sidelined legislators as drivers of public policy, which now largely emanates from the executive of the governing party of the day, then comes to Parliament in order to be duly rubber-stamped. This is why so few private Members’ Bills have been tabled over the last 19 years. MPs’ individuality has been stifled in another important way. In other democracies, representatives are accountable to a specific, geographically-defined constituency. They raise their constituents’ concerns in Parliament direct with the Head of Government or with Ministers. These might be about hospital closures, large businesses’ relocation, a poor performing school, or even the plight of an individual constituent. in South Africa, this “democratic deficit” has widened the gap between Parliament and local communities. There is no compulsion, for example, for MPs to hold weekly consultations to help and offer advice to their constituents. The beauty of a defined constituency is that it also offers protection to the MP. If an MP takes up their community’s or a
34 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa
The National Assembly of South Africa.
constituent’s case, they know they cannot be easily silenced. Of course, party discipline is a prerequisite of representation. An MP should also be an equipped to defend their party’s policies with vigour and flair. A constituency element helps to
strike the right balance between party loyalty and an MP’s individualism. It is for these reasons that the DA supports a mixed electoral system: with a constituency and ‘top up’ party list element to ensure proportionality. The elegance of this system is that
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