South Africa’s ”democracy deficit” is increasing as the African National Congress focuses on grabbing more and more power for itself, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
Writing in his weekly newsletter on Thursday, Leon said while the ANC had committed itself to transparent and accountable government in 1994, today it has become accountable to no one but itself.
”The lines between the ruling party and the state have become blurred, as have the lines between Parliament and the executive.
”As the ANC continues to erode the very practices of transparency and accountability that it promised to uphold, South Africa’s democratic deficit keeps growing larger and larger,” he said.
As it does so, South Africa moves closer and closer to what is called ”illiberal democracy” — the combination of elections with an authoritarian government, where the people have no real power and their votes mean almost nothing.
Those who think liberal democracy is expendable should think again.
History has proven over and over again that liberal democracies are more prosperous and more stable than autocracies of every kind.
”For the ordinary South African, the erosion of liberal democracy means a life of ‘quiet desperation’, as Thoreau once said — the decline of the hope that liberation from apartheid once promised,” Leon said.
South Africa can not afford to dally with flash-in-the-pan election candidates, one-person parties and protest votes.
”Our national problems were not the stuff of a Hollywood movie. They are real.”
Five million citizens are infected with a deadly disease the ruling party continued to deny was any cause for real alarm, and eight million South Africans are out of work.
The country needs a strong political alternative to the ANC — one that provides a comprehensive set of alternative policies, could stand up for transparency, and holds the ruling party to account.
The DA and the ”coalition for change” intended to fulfil this role, Leon said. — Sapa