WeekendAnalysis
Tirony of what is happening in the politics of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Republic of South Africa is one to behold. This has to do with the two neighbouring countries’ systems of government; tinkhundla system for Eswatini and multi-party system for South Africa. (SA)
The paradox here is that within Eswatini there are voices calling for ditching of the tinkhundla system in preference of multi-party, while in South Africa there are calls for a change from the multi-party system in favour of tinkhundla.
That’s right; South Africa could as soon as the 2024 elections move towards a tinkhundla-based system! Perhaps it suffices for one to draw the attention of those who might be misinformed about the word ‘tinkhundla’, which has been demonised and made to seem as though it is an unwanted monster. The word tinkhundla (plural) or inkhundla (singular) is a vernacular reference to constituencies or constituency.
Hence, we have Mbabane East Constituency, Lobamba Constituency, Manzini North Constituency, Lobamba Constituency, Hosea Constituency, Siphofaneni Constituency and so on. In total, there are 59 constituencies (tinkhundla).
As Stated in the kingdom’s 17-year old Constitution, ‘the tinkhundla units or areas, inspired by a policy of decentralisation of State power, are the engines of development and the central pillars underpinning the political organisation and economic infrastructure of the country through which social services to the different parts of the Swati community are facilitated and delivered’.
HE SYSTEM
That’s what SA now seeks to move towards. There appears to be a certain level of consensus that the multi-party system has failed because it lacks accountability as politicians are only accountable to their political parties and not to the electorate (masses/voters). A constituency-based system is seen as more effective.
Hypocritically though, there are some organisations and individuals within SA who are supporting the calls within Eswatini yet in their own backyard, there are moves to adopt the very system they want emaSwati to do away with.
For those who might be at sea, let me have the honour of bringing about clarity. In 2020, SA’s Constitutional Court, in what is known as the New Nation Movement ruling, ordered Parliament to amend the Electoral Act to allow independent candidates to be elected to the national and provisional legislatures. Parliament was given a two-year deadline to implement the court ruling, which means this had to be done by June 2022.
However, the deadline has not been met. This has led to the Constitutional Court granting Parliament a six months extension of the deadline, meaning that December 2022 is now the cut off time.
One SA Movement leader, Mmusi Maimane, is one of those who are looking forward to this amendment. He wants more than just an amendment that will allow independent candidates to stand for election.
In an interview with Newzroom Africa, Maimane, quoted herein verbatim, said: “We have to overhaul it (electoral law) entirely by saying that the country must be broken down into constituencies. And that is not a constitutional requirement in that you need to amend the constitution to achieve that; there are already demarcated areas in the country. So you can just take those ones and allow voting by the people to take place there and know who they’re voting for.”
INCIDENT
Maimane gave an example of the recent tavern shooting incident in Soweto where unknown gunmen shot dead 16 people.
He said had there been a MP who was directly elected by the people of Soweto, that MP would be called to give answers and account on what was going on in the neighbourhood.
But because the MPs were cherry-picked through political party lists, no one would come to address the people of Soweto. Expanding on this, Maimane said: “That’s what we are talking about! Otherwise if it’s proportional all you end up with is a system where parties produce lists and people can stand in areas they don’t even come from and when it’s said and done none of us know who our representatives are.
That’s where it becomes unfair in that regard.” Instead of the current system where MPs come from party lists, Maimane wants this changed so that a majority of the MPs are elected directly by the people.
To this end, he said: “We shoud rather go for 300/100, which means 300 MPs must be directly elected and the remaining 100 can be proportionally elected.” The Slabbert Commission Report elucidates the 300/100 formula. Again, I have the honour of explaining the Slabbert Commission.
In 2002, South Africa’s Cabinet appointed an Electoral Task Team, which was chaired by the late political analyst, businessman and politician Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, in preparation for the 2004 national and provincial elections.
Its task was to draft the new electoral legislation required by the Constitution. It published its report in January 2003, but Parliament did not implement its recommendations and, instead, drafted new legislation.
The majority view and recommendation in the commission’s report was for a ‘legislative provision for an electoral system that can evolve to a larger multi-member constituency system with a compensatory national list’.
The system envisaged accessibility and responsibility between voter and representative, instead of a situation where representatives hide behind the political party collective.
PROPOSES
This how the recommendation reads in part: “The majority proposes multi-member constituencies together electing 300 members of the National Assembly and a compensatory closed list providing 100 members (giving a total of 400 members).”
The commission stated that apart from the 300 constituency representatives, the further 100 representatives would be elected from the closed national lists in order to restore overall proportionality. Writing for News24 on June 12, 2020, Jan Gerber said of the recommendation: “It would entail 300 single-representative constituencies, elected in a first past the post system - meaning if for instance five candidates compete for a seat, the one with the highest number of votes wins the election.
This system is used in Britain. This system would easily accommodate independent candidates.
The remaining 100 seats for the National Assembly would be elected proportionally from national, closed party lists, like the 200 seats from the national lists currently elected for the National Assembly.”
Do you notice the similarity here with the tinkhundla-system where people directly elect their representatives, who are a majority, and then His Majesty the King also appoints other representatives so as to ensure overall proportionality? Kwena Manamela (an author and social commentator) and Malesela Maubane (a public relations strategist and social commentator) penned an article for the Mail and Guardian on August 15, 202 under the heading ‘Electoral reform: It’s now or never’ in which they urged all stakeholders to accept the need for a new dawn and putting behind them past privileges.
“We need finality on the matter of a closed proportional representation system versus a constituency system…” they said. The two writers also referred to a report by a high-level panel headed by SA’s former president Kgalema Motlanthe, which called for electoral reforms to strengthen Parliament’s accountability to the public. They said the following in the panel’s report was worth noting: “A constituency system will hold politicians more directly accountable to the voters and will better ensure that election promises are kept for fear of being voted out.” Such is what occurs in the context of Eswatini.
Just ask any person who was voted out or ask the voters why they did not vote someone back into Parliament. The answer will be simple: “He/she did not keep the promises made when campaigning.” Manamela and Maubane noted that in the SA context, while the constituency system might have a dire consequence for smaller parties, it was a necessary move towards ensuring diversity of voices. They said the direct election of members by voters could perhaps ensure that ‘a people gets the government it deserves’, by which they meant a government that advances people’s socioeconomic aspirations.
DEVELOPMENTS
EmaSwati could do well to monitor the developments in SA – a country that many have made the Holy Grail when it comes to democracy.
There are many lessons to be learnt on the multi-party system of democracy.
Many argue that this system ensures accountability. Really?
Maimane, who has at some point spoken against Eswatini’s system of government, doesn’t believe there is accountability in this system.
In the Newzroom Afrika interview, he cited President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala scandal. He pointed out that the president has refused or ignored to come to Parliament to account for what happened in his farm but opted to go to the Integrity Commission of his African National Congress (ANC) party. Maimane said: “We have a president who feels more comfortable explaining to the ANC Integrity Committee, which was never voted for, instead of going to Parliament where you expect the representatives of the people are.”
This is not to say the constituency-based system guarantee total accountability, but neither does the multi-party system. With the former though, the individual would have to account to the people who voted them into Parliament as opposed to accounting to a structure within their political parties, which would comprise of ‘comrades’ who would seek to protect the individual.