Voters hold key to stable government

Coalition governments were touted as the perfect remedy against one party dominance that has been the norm since SA became a democracy in 1994.

The instability of coalition partnerships in many municipalities suggests there have been unintended consequences of multiparty governments.

Instead of parties coming together to represent a wide variety of the constituencies they represent, many of them see this as an opportunity to extort positions or extract concessions from the dominant party.

Instead of the euphoria of cooperation, we have the paranoia that any day could be the last day of power and the perks that come with it. In all this, service delivery suffers, and staff morale suffers because officials are required to realign their own work with the political programmes of their new bosses. That is if they are lucky to keep their jobs.

As we head towards the 2024 general elections – expected to be the most decisive in SA’s three decades of democracy – parties will position themselves as most deserving of the electorate’s vote.

Being in government demonstrates to the electorate what the party can do, should it be entrusted with the vote. There is also a darker side. It can also mean the party is able to use the state’s resources to fund its political ambitions and discredit its opponents. It is therefore easy to see why the period leading up to the elections can be as unstable as it is.

This cannot be left to politicians, who are the source of the instability in the first place. It is wishful thinking to hope that political parties might develop scruples with regards to using state power and purse. That duty lies squarely with the electorate.

The electorate must pay attention to the reasons parties collapse governments. Not every motion to remove a mayor or speaker is malicious. There are times when it is in the best interest of that municipality.

Voters must use the next elections to punish those they deem to collapse government for their sheer greed, and reward those they see as acting in the best interests of their community.

That might be the only way that political parties are reminded that the ultimate arbiter of political and policy decisions is the voter.