Scrap the vanguard party dinosaur
THE immediate response to Gwede Mantashe’s announcement that he will not be seeking any leadership position in the upper echelons of the ANC was speculation about who would succeed him.
But we don’t just need new leaders, we need a new way of leading. It’s time for democracy to move past the vanguard era.
It might be better if no one replaced Mantashe in terms of the two-centres-of-power configuration of Chief Luthuli House and the National Assembly.
Parliament has had time to mature, and the events of the past year have made it clear that the party structures like the Big Six and the NEC have been hampering the National Assembly from coming into its own.
After all, neither the Big Six nor the NEC are mentioned in the South African constitution. They are party structures, not government formations.
The Big Six is even bigger than government when you think of current events. It deploys MPs to the National Assembly because they are not elected on a constituency-based system, for a geographical “riding”. T
hus all the commotion about a secret no confidence vote – to get a more accurate reading.
That is only happening because Luthuli House is bigger than Parliament.
The president is elected by MPs in the National Assembly, according to the constitution.
Does it envisage that a vanguard party will set up its own parallel structure in advance, at an elective conference, before going to the polls?
It makes Parliament, the deputy president, House leader, Speaker and the cabinet all subservient to Luthuli House.
According to the consti- tution, the president should report to Parliament.
Thabo Mbeki recently wrote that MPs should be free to vote by conscience – to resonate with the electorate.
MPs are not elected by their party, they are appointed after the electorate allocates seats to different parties. But what has happened is that the vanguard party upstages the MPs that it deploys, and tells them how to vote.
Even in constituency-based electoral systems, MPs belong to a party, and there are parliamentary whips to keep them in line.
Parties also have a role to play, even between elections, but not a dominant role.
Once a government is formed, until either its mandate ends or it is brought down by a vote of no confidence, then president and cabinet run the country under the oversight of Parliament.
The vanguard era is a throwback to the socialist soviet republics of the Communist Bloc. Its place in our constitutional democracy has been out of all proportion, and for far too long.
One good way to hasten its end will be for the ruling alliance to break up and new coalitions or formations to emerge. We are watching that happen right before our eyes.
In the 2014 election, only about half the electorate registered to vote. Most of those who voted were over 35.
By 2019, the younger half may well register in order to show their disapproval of an anachronistic system that is not serving youth interests well.
A combo like Maimane for president with Malema as dep- uty president would have the “look and feel” of the future, instead of the past.
Thank you Gwede for your courage in stepping aside. Better yet if no one replaces you in a Big Six as we know it. This is one extinction that we would welcome.
Let us save the rhinos but let go of the vanguard party dinosaur. Viva the National Assembly! Chuck Stephens Executive Director, Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership, writing in his personal capacity