The fatal flaw in SA’s democracy
Perhaps the most vital of chief justice Raymond Zondo’s recommendations in his state capture report involves reform of SA’s electoral system.
On this count, Zondo recommends that the country’s president be elected directly by voters, rather than through the current party list approach.
It’s a far-reaching proposal audacious, but necessary.
As Zondo puts it: “After this commission heard the kind of evidence it heard over a period of about four years, including the role played by Mr [Jacob] Zuma in helping the Guptas loot taxpayers’ money the way that they did, together with their associates, we are bound to ask the question: how did this country end up having as president someone who would act the way president Zuma acted?”
The answer, he adds, is that Zuma became president of the country simply because he ascended to the position of president of the ANC in 2007. When the party won the 2009 national elections, it voted him into the presidency.
However, if voters had an opportunity to vote directly for Zuma or another presidential candidate — rather than simply voting for political parties — it’s possible the people of SA would have steered the country in an entirely different direction, given the 700 corruption charges Zuma had already accumulated over the arms deal.
Lawson Naidoo, director of the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution, says the spirit of the recommendation is spot on, but he cautions that direct presidential elections may not work too well in SA. It’s something Zondo himself alludes to, when he writes that a direct system may not be the silver bullet some believe it is.
Nonetheless, the debate about electoral reform is urgent, as legislation is already being considered by parliament to allow independent candidates to contest elections (thanks to an earlier Constitutional Court ruling).
A direct vote for the president would be a vital step forward for one reason in particular: it would make the incumbent accountable to the country rather than the party.
This has never been clearer than in the scandal over the 2020 burglary at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm. Given that he is president only because the ANC has decided so, Ramaphosa’s main incentive is to manage the fallout in the party, rather than being truly accountable to the electorate.
It’s a fatal flaw in our democracy — and, in part, the reason state capture could take hold so easily.