The stage is set for South Africa’s biggest demonstration of political thuggery and the voters are hamstrung, watching from the sidelines as public representatives denigrate their wishes made through the ballot.
For the next 15 days, bent politicians will be prostituting themselves to the highest bidder and there is nothing the disapproving voter can do. We have come to a sorry pass and only the ANC can deliver us from this shame.
It is hoped the ANC’s December conference, which is expected to trigger a change of guard in the ruling party, will inject new life into the country’s politics and into our democratic process.
All eyes and indeed all roads lead to Limpopo where, not only the future of the ANC will be under scrutiny, but also our collective journey to a better day. It is for this reason that our citizens, cheated by the political thuggery that is a hallmark of floor crossing, look to the ANC to put an end to the madness.
The ANC, interestingly, was divided on the issue at its national policy conference two months ago and decided to defer the decision to the Polokwane conference. But it was significant that the party agreed that while it was important to be continually winning over people to its positions, it should not try to do so through floor crossing.
It was, of course, the DA’s yearning for a short cut to power, through an alliance with the now-deceased New National Party, that brought us to this sorry pass. With almost one million votes nullified on each of the past two floor-crossing window periods, the legislation is perhaps the most undemocratic law to have been passed since 1994.
It has brought about an unprecedented level of chequebook politics, with alleged bribes ranging from R5Â 000 per councillor per month to R200 000 in kickbacks in the Western Cape.
The ANC must scrap floor crossing. The ruling party has been infiltrated by self-serving opportunists who see the ANC as a vehicle to power.
Floor crossing has increased in-fighting within the ruling party as floor crossers are rewarded senior positions ahead of hardworking, loyal party members. The process has also brought single-member political parties into Parliament, which, with no constituents, are draining the fiscus.
Consensus is growing that our electoral laws need to be reformed. This might be the time.
This quasi-democratic system, in which public representatives are not elected directly by the voters, is a far cry from democracy as envisaged by the populace.
The voters should elect public representatives, from local councillors to the president of the republic. That way they will have to account to the people and not to a political party. Returning power to the people is what we voted for and proportional representation and floor crossing have outlived their usefulness.
Biofuel debate
We live in a new world — one dominated by climate change and the rush to find sustainable ways of doing things. Some new policies will only exacerbate the challenges we face. But it should be clear that yesterday’s ways probably will not work tomorrow — and the search for sustainability will affect us today.
Take the case of this week’s inflation rate spike to an unprecedented and unexpected 6,3% CPIX.
South Africans are used to fuel prices pushing up inflation. Oil prices are sustaining high levels of about $70 a barrel, driven by concerns about supply shortages from the Middle East, peak oil (the idea the world is running out of oil) and strong growth in Chindia.
Inflation is also being pushed by food prices. The latest inflation figures show food prices increasing at 8,3% a year, only marginally behind the 8,9% increase in fuel and power prices.
Food prices overall are up 13% since a year ago, led by maize prices, which are up 22%. The maize price is being driven by demand in the United States for corn to be converted to biofuel to help the US reduce its need to import oil from the Middle East and, coincidentally, to improve its green credentials.
The US’s rush to biofuels has seen the price of maize double in the past 10 months, The Guardian reports, and there have been protests in developing countries as the prices of food staples have risen.
Biofuels are not a green panacea: they might not prove to be the low emitters of carbon initially thought because of the energy required to grow them, they could contribute to deforestation and some require large amounts of water.
Critics see little potential for biofuels here because of the country’s water shortage. But jatropha, a plant being embraced in India, is both inedible and flourishes in arid conditions. It offers the potential to boost the economy and encourage energy diversity and sustainability without threatening food security.
Higher food prices are something to worry about, but also an opportunity for the agricultural sector to increase its investment and employment. Policy should seek to target those directly affected through grants, rather than risky and costly non-market interventions.
The country’s water scarcity and relative shortage of arable land might limit our role as a consumer of biofuels to no more than a few percentage points of our total needs. But we might end up becoming a huge importer of these fuels from neighbouring countries, with massive benefits to the region.
Whether we become a major user, the rampant food price growth, underpinned by US demand for maize, tells us the emergent biofuel market is having significant economic effect at home already.