The relevance of political parties

ONCE in Africa there was a political proposal that for the nation to survive in unity the tribe must die.

This otherwise noble proposition achieved its dark side when minority tribes were clobbered in the name of national unity in African countries.

We here propose the death of the political party in Africa and we must begin by admitting that we are not the first ones to propose the death of the political parties in the Global South.

In a way, the Third Way in Zimbabwe, presumably to be led by some political thinkers has this idea as its mantra.

This article is motivated by the recent and ever intensifying debate predominantly in South Africa but also elsewhere in the United States of America on whether Members of Parliament from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) must vote along party lines even if they would have voted otherwise, a phenomenon loosely termed “voting with your conscience”.

The practise of political parties voting along party lines is so entrenched hence the presence of the Chief Whip as a key office bearer in parliament. This, in a strong way abolishes the democratic vote from the conscience.

The political party can be traced to 1600 ancient Rome when politics was organised along two different interests, the Patricians representing noble families and the Plebeians who represented the rich and the middle class. It is important to note that right from their formation, political parties served the interests of the influential (the rich, educated, middle class etc.) and not the poor or the nation. Based on this, we can therefore argue that political parties, if captured, were captured right from their inception since they were formed to serve the interests of society’s influential and well to do.

Here in Africa, most of the ruling political parties of today were born out of the various liberatory movements which then coalesced into ruling political parties. These parties were led by black African radicals most of whom had drank deep in terms of colonial and European education, as radical as they were they had become black white men and women that had their nose up as competent knowers and thinkers.

With time, liberation based political parties such as the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) in Zimbabwe, the ANC in South Africa and South West Africa people’s Organisation (Swapo) in Namibia started facing competition from political parties formed after the end of apartheid and colonialism.

These include the Democratic Alliance (DA) in South Africa, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe and the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) in Namibia. Liberation movements and parties have been naturally suspicious of these newcomers that are accused of sell out opportunism and historical inexperience.

Political parties serve six main functions: political opinion-making; selection and deployment of office bearers, loosely termed cadre deployment in South Finetown in South Africa where we are presently researching and teaching.

At a theoretical level, political parties’ overall configuration is termed the political system of which there are four main ones. These are the single party systems as in China, Cuba and North Korea, the Dominant party systems as in South Africa, Russia and Japan, the two party system as in the United States and the multi-party system as in most of Europe. Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia present a propitious model for this discussion, a no party system. We argue here that over time, political parties, both ruling and opposing have lost legitimacy and relevance for the reasons we will outline below. e Irrelevance of the Party always the hard working performers and deliverers but political entrepreneurs.

Political parties are now a huge industry with high costs for the tax payers, money which can be used elsewhere.

The funding of political parties is problematic and presents a catch 22 situation, if they are funded by the public and business, they run the risk of being captured and if they are funded by the state, they run the risk of draining the fiscus. Hence our argument that we need to rethink the relevance of political parties and begin to think of alternatives. It is also important to note that in Africa political parties have frequently been reduced to tribal gangs that are organised on blood and ancestral lines, fanning tribalism and political violence in the troubled continent.

Any Alternative to the Party? One alternative is to have a political system with no political parties but individual members of Parliament, councillors, etcetera, elected from and directly by the constituencies.

This will also apply to the President, who then becomes the president of the country and not simultaneously be the leader of a party. Leading both the party and the country has proved to be problematic as more often than not, presidents choose their parties over their countries.

This is the model that some Zimbabweans are mediating over and it is one which deserves to be tested. The harm that political parties pose to national unity cannot be underestimated. By appealing to certain constituencies and not the others, parties tend to divide nations along races, class, ethnicities, religions, age groups and many other lines.

With these divisions, political intolerance and violence both intra and inter political parties becomes inevitable as competition for votes increases. Whether it is the Inkatha Freedom Party fighting the National Freedom Party or Zanu-PF fighting the MDC, or ANC factions fighting each other in KZN, the bottom line is that the loss of lives, property and hope is evident and must stop.

While there is no empirical evidence linking the political party system to the increase in voter apathy, we are persuaded to suggest that the belligerent nature of political party based politics in Africa has made politics very toxic and an unattractive vocation to those who would otherwise hold public office and serve their countries with dedication and distinction.

We close by noting that the political party as an institution has done remarkable things for our political lives since its inception around the 1600s.

Humanity has evolved to a point where we need a new way of conducting our politics and the middleman otherwise known as the political party must now be dispensed. After all the political party is a colonial creature in Africa.

Mabhena and Benyera write from South Africa: decoloniality2016@gmail.com